How do you choose which name/ spelling of a name is the correct one?
I have several surnames which are spelled differently on different dokuments (eg Jeavons, Jevons, Jevon, Jevens, Jevens etc) I have decided to use the earliest spelling on birth/ marriage/ death certificates, and not take too much notice of census variations. I know the variations came about because of the illiteracy of the people concerned. The same is also true of christian names (Pheobe, Phebe, Phoebe, Febe etc).
I don't really know what is the correct way to do it, what does everybody else do?
Sue