My grandmother (née WEDEMEYER) married an Irishman in 1896 and moved to Sydney away from her family in the Gayndah & Eidsvold area. Her Sydney house was called "WEDEMEYER". Whenever we visited them we said we were visiting "WEDEMEYER", and we always pronounced the "ey" part of "WEDEMEYER" with a short "I" giving a sound for "eyer" as in the English word "ear". It would seem possible that this was how the name was pronounced when g-grandfather first came to Qld. This was supported by one of my WEDEMEYER relations who told me that her father was given the Sydney version short "I" pronunciation, by the old people in Gayndah. However, all the modern-day WEDEMEYER relatives, without exception, pronounce the final "meyer" with a long "I" for the "ey" giving a sound for "eyer" as in the English word "mire". Was this due to a desire to conform to the average Australian who has no desire to have precise Germanic pronunciation? I have tracked down some 1870's letters written around Gayndah, Qld by my g-grandfather WEDEMEYER, (b. 1825 in Goslar near Hannover, Germany). The letters were in English language and in a typical rounded English script and addressed to the Qld Lands Department. Significantly, on four occasions he signs his name with a definite umlaut over the Y of WEDEMEYER.... two vertical strokes. A research archivist from Germany tells me that she has found the Y umlaut in 17th century archives "very often" and it was not found in any particular region. However, I still don't know how it would have been definitively pronounced in the context of "WEDEMEYER". Can anyone advise? Relating to the need to conform and use of umlauts: I taught in High Schools in the west of Sydney and had spoken to Mr and Mrs Mueller (Müller with a ü), parents of a student at the school. I used their name frequently in an interview.... correctly pronounced since I thought people like to hear their name used correctly. In later following up the interview, I spoke to the student by name in the corridor... he immediately corrected me and said: Me name's "MOOLER" Sir! -- ***Philip Strong***Email:plstrong@pnc.com.au***Blue Mountains, Australia*** German Interest: WEDEMEYER. Most of the WEDEMEYERS in the Queensland telephone book are related through George Henry Louis WEDEMEYER of Gayndah Qld.