Quote Originally Posted by gilmore View Post
I am now researching a surname, Shofich, that seems to have been most commonly spelled Szyjowicz where it originated. One variation is Chwick. Another is Haifetz.
Are you telling me that US county clerks weren't fluent in Polish? Shofich is a pretty good phonetic transcription. And I wouldn't be surprised if Haifetz were transcribed by a Yiddish/Hebrew speaker.

I think everyone here can attest to how lucky PandDnun was in taking her family back that far and having a little information about their lives as well. Beyond misspellings, alternate-spellings and overlooked information, you all have forgotten to mention the difficulty some have in reading old handwriting. I've seen some rather inventive interpretations of old German cursive (confusing a "J" for a "Y" and explaining that "Yohannes" was confused because of the way "J" is pronounced in German )

There are so many obstacles; that's what makes the chase so fun and the success mentioned here so refreshing and addicting and just plain great.