Spelling VariationTracing your surname and your family lines can be difficult, in part because of the transient nature of surnames in times past. In the nineteenth century and before, there was no such thing as standardized spelling; names were spelled the way they sounded to the person writing them down. This accounts for much of the variation in surnames today. Take a simple surname like McIntyre, for instance, and search for it in surname lists. You'll find variations MacIntyre, McEntyre, and MacEntyre...
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