Eldon,
Those name differences are very minor and seem to fit with the general confusion that took place back in the 1800s when there was much less ability to read and write and some words and names may have never been seen in writing by the very people who went by them. In my mother's family, there is the LeGans family from France who now spell their name Leggins. My "
Lochhead" family from
Scotland who have diverged into lloyd, lawhead, laughead, and lockheed over about 3 or 4 generations. I also believe that those who came to this country had such a beginning ability to speak
English that anyone writing down census information or immigration/ship records and so on, misunderstood them on a regular basis. I work in a college with my wife sometimes where there are a high percentage of foreign exchange students and I have a very difficult time understanding their
English more often than not. And one more thing, some names just lend themselves to mistaken spellings. The less common a surname and the more open to interpretation, the more misspellings you might see, my friend whose last name is
Chamberlain has seen his name spelled at least 4 or 5 different ways in records. And I have people write my first name Jeffrey as Jeffery all the time. It sure makes it hard trying to find people in records. I usually try my known spelling of a name first and then go back and see if the database allows wildcards. Most of the ones I've seen will allow you, if nothing else, to enter part of a name like "LIT" and will still find such a name as "
Litherland" and "Little" without even using a "wildcard". I'll keep my eye out for any Wabash or nearby matches to the surname I find, I haven't seen it much before, but, then again, I wasn't looking at the time. Good luck.