"Booth" Was Not John Wilkes Real Last Name?

[L Verge]

Good question. Those who claim the Booth line goes to Portugal (or Spain) show the spelling as Bethe or Bothe.

Sometimes clerical errors make a difference also. In my own family, my maiden name is "Mays." My father had four brothers, all of whom spelled their names that way -- that is until the U.S. Army intervened. All of the brothers joined the Army at various years, and all used the family spelling. However, somewhere along the line, one brother's name got changed to "Mayes" on service records.

After he got out of the service, it became so difficult to use "Mays" again on any application, etc. that required mention of his military records, that he just gave up and continued with "Mayes." How many times did such a thing happen on immigration records, military records, etc.?

Another personal example: I have the store records of my great-grandfather Huntt dating back to 1862. One day, I spotted the name "John Boothe" in the ledgers and was excited - until my mother told me that there had been a black family near T.B. that spelled their name that way even when she was a child in the early-1900s.