I've been researching a line of my extended family that I (lazily) ignored for many years.

Why did I avoid it before now? Because the surname could be spelled so many ways, I thought the task would be nearly impossible.

During the last week or so, I've dug in and confirmed the search to be as challenging as I expected. Here are some of the spellings encountered:

Cutshall Godshall Godschall Golschall Gotshall Goodshalk Godshal

Gotschall Gotshel Gutshall Gutschall Gutchall Gottschael

A local genealogical society volunteer in Ohio was very helpful in checking records but conveyed a sadly amusing story about a not-to-be-found probate file:

"There was a time when the Probate Judge wanted the court house "cleaned out," and they pulled dump trucks up to the building, had chutes where they pushed the records from the top floors of the court house into the back of the trucks. The trucks took the records down the road and dumped them into a garage with a dirt floor. Some folks from the Historical Society went and retrieved the records, put them in files, made up indexes and are now the "keepers of the records." So, if there had been a record for your ancestor, maybe she was one that blew away as the truck went down the highway."