This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Smith, Schmidt Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADI/820.2.1.1 Message Board Post: In the 1880 census of Franklin Twp., Sacramento Co., CA (p. 338A), we find John SMITH (æ 35, b. Holland) and wife, "Willemena" (æ 33, b. Holland). Unfortunately, I had stopped there. I have now extracted the rest of their census records (1900-1930) and created a family group sheet for them at my web site: http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/S/SchmidtJohn-WilhelminaMohr.shtml In all their remaining censuses, John and William are surnamed SCHMIDT and give their birthplaces as Germany, although daughter, Madeline, is still "Madelane SMITH" in the 1900 census. A great many Germans surnamed SCHMIDT had their surnames Anglicized to SMITH upon arrival in the U.S., just as a great many MILLERs were originally MÜLLER and a great many BROWNs were originally BRAUN. It seems John & Wilhelmina managed to reclaim the original spelling and shed the Anglicized "SMITH" spelling. However, I will continue to show them as SCHMIDT/SMITH on my web site, not because they ever deliberately changed their name to SMITH, but because they may be found as SMITH in some records. As for their birthplace, it's my guess that in 1880 when the census enumerator asked them their origin, they replied either "Deutsch" or "Deutschland," which the enumerator mistakenly took to mean "Dutch" and thus entered their birthplaces as "Holland." This same error is the one that resulted in the "Pennsylvania Deutsch" being called, "Pennsylvania Dutch," despite the fact that they are overwhelmingly German, not Dutch. In the 1920 census, John & Wilhelmina's son, Henry, gives his father's birthplace as Hanover, Germany, and his mother's as Holstein, Germany. A location in Hanover would be consistent with a location in East Frisia, though the Global Gazetteer spells the town, Grosswolde. So, we were both right and both wrong. I was wrong for not looking beyond the 1880 census, and you were wrong for not looking at the 1880 census. Score 1-1. We're both winners because we both now know more than we did. :-) Diana P.S. How were you able to identify the Jan Christoffer SCHMIDT in Grosswolde as the one in California?