Core Surname

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Virginia, United States

The records of southwest Virginia often contain variant spellings for some surnames. Typically these are semi-random variations driven by differences in spelling preferences in an age when spelling was not standardized. In some cases the persons involved were not literate, and were probably oblivious to what the clerk put down. In other cases, there is clear evidence that there was a preferred spelling, though this might be ignored by the clerk recording a particular record.

A systematic effort is being carried out in the Southwest Virginia Project to locate records for the settlers in the area. An example of this is the SWVP Register 1769-1778, which focuses on the initial settlers from the time the area was formally opened for settlement, to the opening of the Revolution. In such registers different records may list the same individual under different spelling variants. An attempt has been made in these registers to collapse entries under the various spelling variants under a common "core surname".

For example, the records of the area inculde entries for

Jeremiah Able
Jeremiah Abel
Jeremiah Abell

From the context it is believed that these records all pertain to the same individual. The "Able" spelling has been designated as the "core surname". This is the spelling that is used for the Person Page for "Jeremiah Able"---(eg, Person:Jeremiah Able (1)). However, when data is transcribed, as on the data collection page (e.g., Person talk:Jeremiah Able (1)) the spelling given in the original is retained as far as possible.