I think I’ve seen about every reasonable variant for the last name of Trautv
etter that there is, but I don’t remember ever seeing this one: Trautfellow.
On 7 May 1885, Christian Troutfetter filed an entry for land in Thomas County, Kansas. The clerk refers to him as Trautfellow in the entry papers. Fortunately the name is correct every else and on the patent itself.
Christian used the spelling of Troutfetter which was different from what most of his cousins who remained in Illinois used. They used Trautvetter. The reason for the change has been lost to history, but Christian was fairly consistent in using the Troutfetter spelling, particularly once he settled in Kansas.
If the name had been indexed as Trautfellow, searches based on phonetics would not have located the name.
Some variants are based on the sounds in the name. I’m not exactly certain what this variant is based upon, although it is possible that the clerk read Christian’s signature and wrote in the upper portion of the entry what he thought the name looked like.
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