>-----Original Message----- >From: Hubertus Haerke [SMTP:[email protected]] >Sent: Sunday, November 02, 1997 9:34 AM >To: Speight, John >Subject: Harke > >Dear John, >I'm answering you in behalf of my brother Heinrich, whom you contacted >under his adress [email protected] . >Yes, I'm very interested in genealogy, and I have my family tree with about >600 persons. But I fear, I'm not in the same line as you. >First, our real name is " Hdrke", written with the modification of the >vowel " a" (doublepoints on it). The official synonym is " Haerke". That's >why my e-mail adress is written like this. Now the problem is the english >language, that doesn't know this modification of the vowel. Also, our name >is very probably pronounced in english correctly without the doublepoints. >Why do I explain all this?? A person with our name leaving in an english >spoken country will automatically get changed his name into "Harke". So you >never will know, if the original name of somebody in America called "Harke" >was really "Harke" or "Haerke". >According to my documents there are now in Germany about 700 families >called "Harke" and about 60 Families called "Haerke". And there is not a >single one called "Harkey". >My idea is, that the "Y" was added afterwards to get the name pronounced >more correctly, to get the "e" on the end of the original name pronounced >at all. That means, you are the descendent of somebody called either >"Harke" or "Haerke". Now, to get the truth is very difficult. The american >immigration officials, of course, wrote "Harke", because they couldn't do >otherwise. If the immigrant came on an english ship, the ship-list doesn't >help. But if he came on a german ship, the ship-list shows the correct >name. >Now I suggest you start looking all the immigration files and ship-lists of >immigration ships wether from England or from Germany to US. They are easy >to find and look in. >About Herche: there are now 120 families "Herche" registered in Germany. I >myself see no connection between the names "Herche" and "Harke" (or >"Haerke"), they are pronounced much differently. For your information: >Sterbfritz is a very small village, now belonging to the community >"Sinntal". They are situated about 35 km directly to the south of the city >"Fulda" in the state of Hessen. >From my family tree called "Haerke" there is at least one person, who >emmigrated in early 1900 to America. She was called "Anna Haerke", in >America "Anna Harke", and she wrote still in 1920 a letter back to Germany. >If you find a person like this on the ship-lists, please tell me. The >oldest ancestor that I found in our tree was "Heinrich Haerke, born >Nov.1689 in ?? and died the 20.4.1756 in Jeinsen, close to Hanover in >northern Germany." >In England you will find nobody else with the name "Harke" or "Haerke" than >my brother, who is working there since ab. 20 years. I'm working since 20 >years in Finland, and I'm doing my genealogical research by phoning, letter >or e-mail. > >In any case, if you find some interesting information or if you get some >interesting answer from others, please be so kind and contact me. >Best regards. >Hubertus Haerke > >