Should His Last Name at Birth Be Sheldon or Shelden?

Question

Francis Drake "Shelden" was the son of Charles William Sheldon and the grandson of Francis Drake Sheldon.  (I am just starting to work on those orphaned profiles.) He appears to be a descendant of William Sheldon.  

Francis is shown with the last name Sheldon on the censuses for 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1925 and 1930 and on the WW1 Draft. He is shown with the last name Shelden on the censuses for 1915, 1920 and 1940, and on his gravestone.

Should his Last Name At Birth be Sheldon or Shelden? (I think it should be Sheldon, with Shelden as an alternate, but the gravestone is causing me to hesitate.)

Comments

I have a family called Chrystall - most often it is spelt that way but also seen it spelt as Crystall, I've gone for the most commonly used option - For one marriage (as an example) Church Records spell it Crystall and marriage registration Chrystall.

Answer 1

In the absence of a birth or baptismal record, I will generally use the earliest available record for LNAB, unless I have reason to believe that record had a misspelling.