Mona,
Many thanks for your reply. If I understand it correctly, the German ö = oe = the "a" sound in English. That part is pretty clear. (I have copies of my gr gr uncle and aunt's wills, and I can see their names spelled BÖHNE and BOEHNE in the same documents. It appears they were used interchangeably in 1839 and 1847.)
My dilemma is why my gr. grandfather changed his spelling to BANEY while is uncle and aunt didn't.
I'm pretty sure I have him on a 1850 census in Illinois as BANEY right before he went to California to mine for gold. His other family members were still using BOHNE and his uncle is buried in Illinois as BOHNE. My gr. grandfather, however, is buried in a neighboring Illinois county as BANEY. Wish I could find out why. I read somewhere that after the Civil War the names were changed to more Americanized, but my gr. grandfather appears to have been using BANEY as early as 1850.
Many thanks--hope I get lucky with answers to my other questions. I'm hoping the "pros" may know some details that may help me.
Marsha