Hi: > >From: "Bunkers, Suzanne" <suzanne.bunkers@mnsu.edu> >To: BUNKER-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: DNA results, naming patterns, etc. >Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 05:03:58 -0600 > >Bette and all, > >Naming patterns were quite different in Germany than in England, > >apparently. In the research that several of the German Bunker(s) have > >done these past several years, we found that surnames varied > >considerably, sometimes because a man who married into a family might > >take the surname of the woman if the land was in her family's name. > This practice was common in a *portion* of Germany. I know it was the case in the Lippe-Detmold area. I don't believe it was the norm in Bayern or Baden. > >Another possibility was that many individuals might be known both by >the >surname of the landowner on whose land they lived (e.g., Bunker at > >Feldmann farm), yet the same individuals might also have their own > >surnames. We found siblings living in the same household who had > >different surnames on German records! And then, of course, there are > >variant spellings because so few individuals were literate and there >was >no standard orthography at the time. It all makes for a most >challenging >genealogical puzzle. > Challenging indeed. I believe that I found (using an Internet search engine) a couple of articles that dealt with the naming practices in Lippe-Detmold. It might be worth a little web surfing. Best regards - Kipp - _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus