Need help trying to determine correct LNAB for USA Snider/Snyder... [closed]

Question

I want to create a profile for a spouse of the family I am working on. There are no current profiles that match this person's parents, so that doesn't help any. This person was born in what is now Lewis County, WV, USA in 1850, based on the age at death -- prior to birth records being kept for that locality. The marriage record shows a surname of Snider; the death record has a surname of Snyder... (The given name is fairly unique -- Mandeville -- so I'm certain this is the same person in both records.) Both surname spellings occur in the locality in that time frame, so that isn't any help per se.

Does anyone have any insight into the family in that locality, or an idea as to where else I can look to try to determine the correct LNAB?

If all else fails, I can set the LNAB to Snider, & the Current Last Name to Snyder...

Comments

Hi Kitty

I descend from Southern Sni(y) ders,they started in the United States in mid 1700's in SC and most of them went south,the family originally came from Germany.

The name can be spelled with an i or with a y or even the old spelling Schneider. One of my cousins has done a wonderful job of documenting the Southern Schneiders. A copy of Dewey's book can be found https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Snider-801

I am a double Snyder, my Mother's Mother and my father's family. I hope the information helps

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Good morning Kitty,

My father was born in Bluefield, WV and his LNAB was Snider. Dad's father was Garland Clinton Snider and I have records that go back to Sneider but I don't have any other sources besides from Ancestry (when I first started in 2013 and not the most reliable source, IMHO) and that seems to trickle down to me with the Snider name being consistent.

I can honestly say that by working with genealogy since 2013, and having many ancestors on my tree, NAMES are a big issue.   

Names change in every tree, depending on the whims of the parents.   My own FIL changed the surname of the kids by adding an S to the name. In really old times, Bloody Mary changed the Stewart name to Stuart because she had a feud with someone with the previous spelling so she assumed her right to change the spelling..  and the list of reasons go on and on.   I had a fun time with the Lindsay and Lindsey names.   3 hours of work with that one.

So.. if you can find a DATED reason.. you have a ghost of a chance of knowing the LNAB spelling.   But otherwise.. you have to do the best you can and list AKAs.    

Good luck and happy hunting.

Rebecca Snider

Answer 1

I finally decided to use Snyder, since most of the records use that variation. (I guess no-one was interested in this...)

Comments

Sorry you didn't get a response, Kitty. Names with variable spellings are extremely common, particularly as we got back farther in time. As you did, most of us have had to look at the available records and choose a spelling that is our best estimate of what name the person had at birth.

It helps to include the multiple spellings in the biography text, and add the alternative spellings as "Other Last Names." That way, if someone else comes to WikiTree looking for Mandeville Snider, they will be more likely to recognize that your Mandeville Snyder profile represents the person they are looking for.

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A Madeline Sinder married one of my husband's uncles in 1936 in West Virginia.

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I'll do that with the alternate, if I haven't already.

Ain't it the truth about variable spellings -- one branch of my family has at least 5 possible variations, & that's starting with my g-grandmother. That's why I haven't been able to reliably trace her parents...