In total, there are fewer than 200 known descendants of Johan Georg and Johannah Trumbold alive today (2001). The name Trumbold is very rare. There are currently only seven individuals with this last name in the United States. Trombold is also unusual and there are approximately 50 individuals with the Trombold name is the US.

Both spellings seem to have originated with two surviving adult sons (Charles Fredrick and Augustus C.) of the original German immigrant ancestor to the United States.

I have also been unable to find this name in IGI (International Genealogical Index) or in the current German telephone books. The closest names in Saxony, Germany, the Trumbold's geographic origin, are Trumpold and Trompelt. My great-grandmother, Anna E. Trumbold, mentioned to my father in the 1930's that she thought the name used to be Trompelt. German pronunciation sounds the "p" as a "b" and the "t" as a "d". We may never know the original spelling.

Early records of the Trumbolds in Iowa show various spellings:

Drunbolt - in the 1860 Iowa census

Trumbold - daughter, Emma's, marriage license dated February 8, 1861

Trumbolt - in Hannah's marriage license and certificate dated December 14, 1863

- in Hannah's deed from John Daniel Ernst dated December 14, 1863

Trumboldt - in Hannah's deed to her children dated July15, 1865

Trumble - in the 1870 Iowa census

Trumbold - Charles' signature in November 1875 on Hannah Ernst' probate records

Trombold - in some of the above probate records written by a clerk of the court.

It is also clear at this time that the brothers began to be consistent in the way they spelled their last name. Charles always used Trumbold and Augustus always used Trombold.

It appears that the two brothers, Charles Fredrick and Augustus C., adopted different spellings of their last name when each became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Augustus became a naturalized citizen because of his service in the Civil War. His induction papers dated October 27, 1864 in Concord, Dubuque County, Iowa, show his name as Augustus Trombold which is the prevalent spelling on his muster rolls. Naturalization papers for Charles Fredrick were drawn in Clayton County, Iowa in 1872 and list his name as Charley Trumbold. Neither document shows a signature so the spelling of their last names likely forever depended on a clerk's interpretation of each man's pronunciation.

These two brothers, who married two sisters and lived within 50 miles of each other for much of their adult lives in Illinois, were therefore stuck with different spellings of their family name because of legal considerations. And neither had the family name as it was apparently originally spelled in Germany.