Roger Ellis Mystery
Spelling
Does Spelling Matter?
In many old records spelling is meaningless. Often individuals didn’t even know how to spell their own name so those who recorded information in the census, wills, marriages, and other records did their best to write a name based on experience and how the name sounded.
The same seems to be true for the Ellis family with a major caveat. The family Bible said it was owned by David Alles and the other names recorded are Elless. Also, it seems that although the Ellis spelling is used, this family used the Elless or Elles spelling except that our branch in Kansas used the Ellis spelling. So, when searching records with Elles and Elless get a little extra attention. It seems there were many spellings of Ellis or similar names and over time many of them moved toward the Ellis spelling. Some of the spellings:
Ellis, Elless, Elliss, Elles, Elice, Ellys, Elias, Eilis, Eiliss, Elic, Elis, Eliason
Alles, Alless, Alice, Ayles, Allis, Allys, Alic
Ellifs (This is really a misunderstanding of the handwritten Elliss)