Hi everyone I'm seeking help about the likely spelling of my gg grandfather's name. His marriage certificate and death certificate show his name as Augustus William Sunstream but after arriving in Australia in 1860s he was commonly known as Charles Brown. He worked as a mariner and harbour master in Tasmania.until his death in 1929 Oral history refers to him as "the Dane' although another branch of the family believed him to be Norwegian. It is known that he spoke english with an accent and conversed a language other than english with visiting sea captains. The difficulty I have is determining where he was actually from. The name Sunstream I'm guessing is an anglicisation - but of what? I've seen listings of the name Sunstrem in Denmark which might be a candidate but am unsure of the pronunciation. Does anyone have any thought about likely surnames, especially those that sound phonetically like Sunstream? I'd appreciate any advice Glenn Brown Perth Western Australia

Glenn Brown wrote: > Hi everyone > > I'm seeking help about the likely spelling of my gg grandfather's name. > > His marriage certificate and death certificate show his name as Augustus > William Sunstream but after arriving in Australia in 1860s he was commonly > known as Charles Brown. He worked as a mariner and harbour master in > Tasmania.until his death in 1929 > > Oral history refers to him as "the Dane' although another branch of the > family believed him to be Norwegian. It is known that he spoke english with > an accent and conversed a language other than english with visiting sea > captains. > > The difficulty I have is determining where he was actually from. The name > Sunstream I'm guessing is an anglicisation - but of what? I've seen > listings of the name Sunstrem in Denmark which might be a candidate but am > unsure of the pronunciation. Does anyone have any thought about likely > surnames, especially those that sound phonetically like Sunstream? > > I'd appreciate any advice > > Glenn Brown > Perth Western Australia Hi Glenn One very likely possibility is Sunstrom where "strom" means "stream"" and is simply a translation (i.e. Anglicization) into English. If you break it into syllables it is Sun-strom where sun is a channel or strait or similar and strom is stream. You may find it spelled with a special character such as strøm, for example. The Scandanavian languages are very similar in these regards. Go to: http://www.familysearch.org/ or http://www.ancestry.com/?rc=locale%7E&us=0 and do a lookup on the surname and also consider the variation Sundstrom. You'll see that it was a fairly common name and, who knows, you might find a connection there. HTH Bob