Adkins or Atkins - Which should I change

Question

Howdy,  have a minor problem that's beginning to wear me down thinking about what to do.  Many decades ago when I began adding to my family's genealogy, I took a look into what was at that time a brick wall; chipped away at it some since then.  (3rd great grandfather, [[Adkins-4435|John Adkins]] )  Initially the few records we had collected seemed to favor Adkins a little more often, but NO definitive birth or death records however.  My line went through one of his daughters so that was the end of the surname in my lineage; and it wasn't much of a problem at that time.  Flash forward more than a half century and I've created a profile him and his children here on WT.

In trying to add records for everyone, the name problem continues, sometime Adkins and other times Atkins; again no actual birth records.  Some records even give Akins and Adkinson.  Such sons that I have been able to find gravesites for have spelled it Atkins.  Only one grave actually, but Atkins seem to be more common among descendants records into the 20th century.

I have entered Atkins in the "Other Last Names" box for he and his wives.  If I do this for all of his children, will that be enough to direct cousins searching Atkins to these profiles?  On the other hand, the one son, Benjamin, whose grave I found has Atkins on his stone and a voice in my mind keeps telling me I need to change the LNAB on his profile; and if I do that should I change it on the other brothers and sisters?  I have more info and sources to add to these profiles so an assortment of data has yet to be entered.  But this keeps nagging me as I work on them.

Hope I'm not making up problems for myself and wasting y'alls time with this. I just want to make sure I get it taken care of in a way that will lead others and future members to profiles already in place.  So thanks for any advice and shoves in the right direction!

Answer 1

I don't worry about the surnames of siblings being the same.  I use whatever spelling/version is on the birth/baptismal record of each for LNAB.  If I find a grave, I use that name or the name on the death record for current last name and any other versions go in other name field.

Answer 2

We have plenty of profiles on wikitree with variations of that family with lots of spellings - Atkins, Adkins, Atkinson, Adkinson, Akins, Akinson.  Other Last Name should have whatever spellings you find for that person, not necessarily the rest of the related family.

Answer 3

Whatever spelling you use, the names will still come up when people search for it. If you search for Adkins you will also get Atkins, Adkinson, Atkinson, Atiken, Adams, and Addison to name a few. I've got the same situation in my Brede, Bread and Breed lines. While it seems the surname change happened about the same timeframe it affects children at a different rate but the names all show up when a search is done.

Answer 4

Having the Atkins spelling in the other last name is fine and it will show in search results. Speaking as a living breathing Atkins I can tell you that even if it didn't most people would know to search both spellings I get mail with my name spelled Adkins even though I have never spelled it that way.