In the last 50 years or so, people have been fairly particular about spelling. There are a right and a wrong way to spell every word, but there was a time in the not so distant past where this was not the case. United States Census takers regularly spelled names as they thought they should be spelled and not necessarily how a particular family spelled the last name. We can only guess as to whether the census takers were in a hurry or perhaps they weren’t especially concerned with spelling, but we’re just more concerned with getting a name written down. They often spelled names the way they sounded. There just wasn’t the same concern for names to have an exact spelling.
Most names changed spelling frequently on official documents during the 1800s, then finally at the beginning of the 1900s, spelling standards became an important occurrence. During this time, you will frequently see brothers go with two different variations of the same name.
Below is a list of the variations of the last name Stierwalt. The names on the left are screen shots from actual family gravestones.
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