What to do with two major different spellings of same name?

Question

I have a ton of Wiki profiles for the Casford family. Somewhere along the line, the spelling went to Cassford (double s) and now all the way through England, Isle of Wight, Prince Edward Isle and many US locations, I have groups with each spelling. Some of the searches dating to 1550 - 1600 have the same person with different spellings. I am thinking of just changing everyone to "one s", but that seems rash. Is there a way in each profile to show that the last name COULD be Casford or Cassford?  thanks brant

Comments

You could put the alternate spelling of the name in the other last names position. I had to do that with the Barry vs Berry surname because of the sources indicating two different spellings but same person.

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Just ask yourself, what would the Sensible Party do, and what would the Silly Party do?

Then go with the Silly Party, because they win all the elections nowadays.

Answer 1

WikiTree policy is to "use their conventions not ours." For each person, the Last Name at Birth (LNAB) and Current Last Name should be determined from records for that person (and consistent with cultural practices for the time and place). We don't impose one spelling on an entire family tree. Because of variability in spelling over time, as well as lack of standard spelling in centuries past, it's common for a father and child to have different spellings for their WikiTree LNAB.

If the person's name is spelled differently in different sources, add the other spellings to the Other Last Names field.