How do I deal with alternative spellings to names? I am trying to find out information for an **Arzula Hokum** and am running head-first into issues with her name. Her first name sounds like **Ursula** and her last like some variant of **Holcomb(e)**. How do I know if a given Ursula Holcomb (or some permutation thereof) is the Arzula I am looking for, or if I have run into someone completely different?

I would treat each of Arzula Hokum and Ursula Holcomb(e) as separate people until some other criterion (i.e. other than the personal name) suggests they are the same person.

I expected to see a suggestion for using 'persona' here since it's one of those cases where multi-level person could be used to build-up a picture of the two individuals, and tentatively merge them with a higher-level persona.

I had a similar case to this myself where a Bertram Smith and a Benjamin Smith looked like they might be the same person. I kept the pieces of evidence for each individual separate until I was able to establish the connection - the probate calendar of England & Wales listed them both as aliases of the deceased.