Your information differs a bit from what I found on a German page somewhere about naming customs. The first name was really like our baptismal name (middle name) There were many Johans, Fredericks, etc listed as first names however the child (or adult) actually went by his middle name. That is why it is so important to find the middle name of an ancestor. Generally speaking the first boy was named after the fathers , father, and first girl named after the mother's mother (I may be misquoting) but it went something like this. If I can find my print-outs on the naming customs I'll let you know where you can find the info. Regards, Nancy ----- Original Message ----- From: Jon Hofmeister <JHofmeister@tklp.com> To: <ILMADISO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 1999 7:27 AM Subject: RE: LUEKER, WITTE, BERNHARDT surnames > Good Morning Lori, > > I have a few of those myself. I am finding that German Lutheran middle names > came from the first names of the baptismal sponsers of that person. In > general, the baptismal sponser was someone related or at least close to the > family. I bet, if you look at the immediate relations of the parents of JBB, > you will find that one of them is named Bernhardt. If you find the baptismal > records, you will probably also find that there were more than one sponsor > and that this person has more than one middle name. > > Regards, > > --Jon from Philadelphia > > > ---------- > > From: LPELUDAT@aol.com[SMTP:LPELUDAT@aol.com] > > Reply To: ILMADISO-L@rootsweb.com > > Sent: Saturday, August 21, 1999 2:48 PM > > To: ILMADISO-L@rootsweb.com > > Subject: Re: LUEKER, WITTE, BERNHARDT surnames > > > > Jon: > > > > I have John Bernhardt Bertels. Some middle names were Bernhardt??? > > > > Let me know. > > > > Lori Arney Peludat > > > > > > ==== ILMADISO Mailing List ==== > > List problems? First, read the Welcome Message that you received > > when you subscribed. Feel free to contact Yvonne James-Henderson, > > list administrator with questions concerning this list! > > mailto:hen1@idt.net > > > > > ==== ILMADISO Mailing List ==== > Search this list's archived messages! > http://searches.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > Search the Rootsweb Resources Page for Madison County! > Includes several Madison Co search engines! > http://resources.rootsweb.com/USA/IL/Madison/ > >