Ancestry Saturday: A Reitenauer Book About Ritenours By a Wrightnour

A Reitenauer book about the Ritenour family by a Wrightnour.

My great great grandfather's middle name was Reitenauer.  I honestly am not sure how he spelled it, though.  The name came from his mother's maiden name. 

The recent publishing of Pennsylvania Death Certificates sparked another look at this family branch in my tree.  It led to a book by my second cousin, 3X removed, John Spratt Wrightnour titled "The Ritenour Family. It Is of German Origin."

The book, I had hoped, would take me further back than I was.  Regrettably, 100+ years haven't added anything to Wrightnour's research.

It seems he had the same problem I have had.  It's this:  It's the variety of name spellings.

The five most common are:

Reitenauer
Ritenour
Ridenhour
Ridenour
Reidenauer

However, there are also these variations, be they misspelled variations or variations actually used by my ancestors.

Rittenauer
Ritner
Reitnauer
Reydenauer
Rightenour
Wrightnour
Writenour
Wrightneur
Ritenhour
Ritenoeur
Rittenour
Reudenauer
Ridenhower
Rightenauer
Rightnour
Reidenuer
Ritnour
Reidenaur
Reidnauer
Redenaur
Reudenauer
Rietenhower
Rietnawer
Wrightnomer
Reydenaure
Reitenower
Reidnour
Reutenauer
Ridenauer
Ridnower

That's 34 variations.  Yikes.