When we are searching for records of our ancestors, it can be easy to dismiss those where the surname does not match exactly with how we are used to seeing it spelled. The name may have an additional letter, be pluralised, be spelt phonetically or in some cases be a different surname altogether. In fact before the standardisation of surname spellings, we may find several variations of our forebears’ surnames.
Some surnames are patronymic meaning they originate from a person's father (eg Robertson); some were allocated according to a person's occupation (eg Carpenter); some are topographical and named after a feature of the landscape (eg Hill); some are characteristic of a person's physical features or aspect of their personality (eg Wise); and others are habitational
