Just let me say, I am delighted to see this list serve to connect
possible cousins! That was my purpose in adopting it.
Diana Knight wrote:
<snip>
I have been researching my family for only nine months and the CAHOON
line
is still mostly a stranger to me. I do know that it is not a common name in
that area of California and was often misspelled in the Census as CALHOUN or
CALHOON.
Comment: Discard the notion of 'misspelling', and embrace the notion
of alternate spellings. We teach our little ones how to spell their
names 'correctly' -- but such a notion is relatively new. The further
back you go in your research, the more variations you will find for
name spellings. Often two or three variants will be found *in the same
document*!
So remember to check as MANY variant spellings as you can think of!
Cahoon, Cohoon, Calhoon & Calhoun are probably all originally
Colquhoun, as are many variants of Cowan/Cowen/Cowin.
But we are not researching *surnames* -- we are reseaching PEOPLE. If
you keep that in mind every time you find a new source to research in,
you will find your way.
Hopefully information will come to light as I dig deeper and it would
help
if I knew the parentage of George CAHOON.
<snip>
We've all been there, Diana! And as soon as you learn their names, you
will have a whole new hunt on your hands!
Valorie