On the tombstone for my great-grandparents her name is spelled Katharina instead of Catherine - was this the German spelling for this given name? And preceding her birthdate is "Geb." and preceding her death date is "Gest." I've not found a translation for this on the online sites that I've found. I did find that "Ruhet Sanft" that is on the tombstone as well to mean "Rest Gently". This is a beautiful stone that I'm so pleased about finding. - Mary

baden-wurttemberg@rootsweb.com writes: >On the tombstone for my great-grandparents her name is spelled Katharina instead of Catherine - was this the German spelling for this given name? And preceding her birthdate is "Geb." and preceding her death date is "Gest." I've not found a >translation for this on the online sites that I've found. I did find that "Ruhet Sanft" that is on the tombstone as well to mean "Rest Gently". This is a beautiful stone that I'm so pleased about finding. Geb. = geboren (to be born) Gest. is from sterben/gestoren = to lie dying, ie, to die It's helpful to have a sense of German grammar, eg, the verbs and their irregular forms. ge- is past tense or past participle; it often has a form that starts with the letter that comes after the ge- prefix. I still recommend sites like wordreference.com for translating dictionary type entries; the site also has phrases and variantes of words. And there are sites where people write in about translation. Kathleen

-----Original Message----- From: baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:baden-wurttemberg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mary Lynn Fuller Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 6:43 PM Subject: [BW] German inscription on tombstone On the tombstone for my great-grandparents her name is spelled Katharina instead of Catherine - was this the German spelling for this given name? And preceding her birthdate is "Geb." and preceding her death date is "Gest." I've not found a translation for this on the online sites that I've found. I did find that "Ruhet Sanft" that is on the tombstone as well to mean "Rest Gently". This is a beautiful stone that I'm so pleased about finding. - Mary --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mary & Baden-Wuerttemberg List Friends, To address Mary's above questions: (1) Katharina is indeed a German rendering of the feminine name Catherine or Katherine (among other spellings) that we English-speakers may be more used to seeing. (2) The "Geb." preceding Katharina's birthdate on the tombstone is likely the abbreviation for the German word "geboren," which means "born." Likewise, the "Gest." preceding Katharina's death date on the tombstone is most likely the abbreviation for the German word "gestorben," which means "died." These abbreviations would be comparable to a tombstone written in English which indicated the deceased's birth and death dates. Hope this helps! Always wishing you the best family research success, Carla HELLER, Los Angeles, California USA mscarlah@earthlink.net List Co-Administrator, ROOTSWEB's Baden-Wuerttemberg Mailing List