Hi, it has been awhile since I have been on here, but I am sure glad to be back!

I researched endlessly to find answers to the mystery of my gggfather's surname. I was raised a Howard. I had no idea until 1999 that our actual name was Spainhour! It makes perfect sense that names were shortened for reasons you provided. Ancestry.com states Spainhour is of German ancestry, but I have also read somewhere that Spainhour, Spainhower or Spainhauer is of Swiss decent.

Thank you for your information. Any further records or detail is very much appreciated!

Kimberly ~ starrynights3@msn.com