9 - 2016 - Genealogy Tip of the Day

It’s not actually true, but it’s worth remembering when searching for names in various records that vowels (a, e, i, o, u) can easily be interchanged, depending upon how the name is pronounced by the speaker and heard by the person writing the name in the record. Extra vowels can be added as well, so Dirks becomes Dierks and Smith become Smithe. Spellings can vary–very easily.