Spelling of last name

Question

My Father name was spelled Kuhn and is brother. His other siblings were Kuntz. My grandparents had the spelling" Kuntz" My great grand parents had "Coones" I can't get past that. Not sure what our name is suppose to be. Where do I go from here with the spelling.

Answer 1

Just curious, "Kuhn"... did the spelling of the name change with a geographical change   (i.e. I know many family's names changed when they arrived at Ellis Island.) or were all the family members from the same relative location?

Answer 2

You will probably get more useful responses if you can give more information, or even better link to a profile, for one of the ancestors where you are 'stuck'. For example in my research I have seen innumerable Kuhn, Kuntz, and Kunst families (but not Coones) in Gelderland and South Holland.

Answering more generically, if you put the surname in the search box above the profiles it will take you to a 'genealogy page', such as this one - there is a list of 'related surnames' on the top right that might give you some ideas on a few other names to look under.

Answer 3

I think that the general theory here is that Last Name At Birth (LNAB) is the name to go by.  This means the surname can change from generation to generation and possibly even from sibling to sibling if you can find the Birth Certificate or Baptism / Christening name.  Which is a good reminder to me.  I'm pretty sure my Dardinger immegrant's LNAB was something like Darendinger, but I don't know exactly.  I need to look into that and change his LNAB.  The trouble is the first documentation I have is his Arrival in NY.