The variant spellings for your ancestral surnames should not only be in your head. Keeping track of them is a must. That way when searching databases and indexes all spellings can be searched. It is easy to overlook a variant if the only way you keep track is in your head.
2 Responses
In my beginning searches I disclaimed any spellings other than the ones I knew already. Fortunately I did not dispose of them, only put them aside already knowing people currently misspelled r names.
I find the Surname Thesaurus at
https://www.namethesaurus.com/search.aspx useful for this purpose.