The first thing to do, if you find yourself at the surname brick wall is to be willing to let go of your attachment to the present spelling of the surname. You may have heard, "Well, that's how it has always been spelled." from a relative. But, keep an open mind.
As you have surfed the web for your surname, you may have already come across variations. You may have discovered family trees with your surname that go back generations to a different spelling. I keep a 3 x 5 index card for each surname and all the variations I find. That way I can refer to it when I am searching.
Now, for some great sites to help further your research:
1. Simone Haslam has provided spelling variations, derivations, and links to a growing number of surnames at Surname Origins Index. This is a good place to start your study. With luck your surname will be included. Also check out simone's surname links which includes ethnic links. And, a thank you to Simone for including my surname related articles.
2. Roostsweb provides a large number of surname mailing lists at Surname Resources at RootsWeb. You may want to subscribe to a list of your surname or a known variant to start a discussion of further spellings and the history of these variations.
3. GenForum provides an extensive list of surname forums. You can discover spelling variations and post requests for the history of a surname at this site.
Some surnames can be very problematic, for instance Eastern European names. There may be variations that you may have never dreamed of as immigration officials translated the names to an English version. If you have a very uncommon name, it may be much more common in the country of origin in its original form. You may have to study a bit of the language of origin to guess at the possible english translation that occured. Study the sounds of letters and letter groups in that language, play with possible combinations of letters to come up with english translations.
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