Susan, After nearly 30 years of searching I have found multiple spellings for my common and less than common familial names. One such name was a definite brick wall of nearly 25 years, and was found by my diligent search of all the census records in the county. I knew the family had arrived in an area of Wisconsin about 1844 and I had found all the census records for them in the same location for 4 generations since. I just couldn't find their name or any version of it in the 1850 census. I had on several occasions looked at every entry starting with an "L" in that census and those in surrounding counties. Finally one day when it was bugging me, I did a line by line of ALL residents of the county not just the ones starting with L. Near the end of my search I found the whole Lehner family, (all the locations, names, ages, dates, etc. matched perfectly), they were documented as the "Diland" family, hey the spelling has two letters in common, close enough right? LOL By the way there were no other Diland families prior to or afterwards for the next 60+ years. Don't ever give up. I learned my lesson, I look initially for the correct or near correct spellings and then start expanding my search from there. I currently work in a reservation call center, when folks call in they usually comment on my southern accent, after I have given my name they usually mispronounce it, so I spell it; even then about 8 times out of 10 they still can't pronounce it. Most common version I get for mispronunciation of my name is Vera. BTW my name is Dara, rhymes with Sara. I can't imagine what it had to be like for an immigrant to arrive and have to attempt to communicate with others who had accents you didn't understand and they didn't understand you. Imagine trying to communicate with out an English to ......(fill in the blank) translation dictionary. Next time we want to get a sense of how difficult it might have been to be understood, try translating a document written in German of any other language besides your native tongue (and without a dictionary or COMPUTER translation program.) I think these folks were down right heroic to leave everything they knew to travel to a new land when they didn't have cable TV broadcasting the landscape or opportunities here. Somehow they made it without cellphones, cable, High speed internet, planes, trains, and automobiles. I am still in awe of their courage and sheers guts. So those that celebrate Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for, including sharing our gratitude for those who made the sacrifice to immigrate to another country to start anew for their families. Many blessings and happy generational hunting to all of you, Dara Dara A. Lehner Searching for Adam(s), Armstrong, Boyd, Braswell, Eagleson, Feldman, Fitzsimmons, Gentry, Goode, Huff, Lehner, Loew(e), Newman, Pierce, Reddick, Robinson, Spence, Stiltz Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Misspelled Names > Alternate spellings of names goes way back. I have copies of original > Colonial wills where the name of the testator, within one will, is > spelled three > different ways, his wife's given named spelled two different ways and one > of > the sons spelled two different ways.

I had wondered about my great-grandfather's name, Emil Conitz, being listed as Emmanuel Conita or Conitr on the passenger list of the Admiral. However, I looked at a site that lets you select letters for your name, and then your name is written out as it would look in the old German script. His name does resemble, to this untrained eye, at least, Emmanuel, in the old script. I had thought that, perhaps, the person doing the writing heard it as A-mu-el, which is the way I have heard some people pronounce Emil. It could have sounded that way, which sounds a little like Emanuel. My dad pronounced Conitz (Con-its) as Con-itsh, though no one else in the family did, including the older people. Cecelia > After nearly 30 years of searching I have found multiple spellings for my > common and less than common familial names. > One such name was a definite brick wall of nearly 25 years > > > they were documented as the "Diland" family, hey the spelling has two > letters in common, close enough right? LOL By the way there were no other > Diland families prior to or afterwards for the next 60+ years. Don't ever > give up. I learned my lesson, I look initially> > I currently work in a reservation call center, when folks call in they > usually comment on my southern accent, after I have given my name they > usually mispronounce it, so I spell it; even then about 8 times out of 10 > they still can't pronounce it. Most common version I get for > mispronunciation of my name is Vera. BTW my name is Dara, rhymes with > Sara. > > I can't imagine what it had to be like for an immigrant to arrive and have > to attempt to communicate with others who had accents you didn't > understand > and they didn't understand you. Imagine trying to communicate with out an > English to ......(fill in the blank) translation dictionary. > > Next time we want to get a sense of how difficult it might have been to be > understood, try translating a document written in German of any other > language besides your native tongue (and without a dictionary or COMPUTER > translation program.) I think these folks were down right heroic to leave > everything they knew to travel to a new land when they didn't have cable > TV > broadcasting the landscape or opportunities here. Somehow they made it > without cellphones, cable, High speed internet, planes, trains, and > automobiles. I am still in awe of their courage and sheers guts. > > So those that celebrate Thanksgiving we have so much to be thankful for, > including sharing our gratitude for those who made the sacrifice to > immigrate to another country to start anew for their families. > > Many blessings and happy generational hunting to all of you, > Dara > > Dara A. Lehner >