Kathy, Diana, et. al., THE NEW CASSELL'S GERMAN DICTIONARY gives the definition of the German noun "Kammerer" as "president of the exchequer (see also Kämmerer)." If someone were going to abbreviate this for convenience, it would probably come out "KAMM" if the person were German; but would possibly come out abbreviated as "KAME" if Anglicizing as well as abbreviating. It is important to remember that for decades after the American Revolution English law prevailed in many everyday practices. English law applied to changing names into the 19th Century. It was very lenient, allowing that changes became effective by "useage and custom." My ancestor, who bought a farm in 1802 in Mifflin County for 600 pounds Sterling, also changed his surname from "ZULAUF" to "SULOUFF" in the first decade of the 19th Century. Our frustrations over our ancestors changing their names comes from our rigid way of thinking about names, and such frustrations should not be blamed on our ancestors' lack of discipline. They were following the rules. It's just a fact that the rules were different back then. I do not know when the courts began trying to impose order on the rather common practice of people changing their surnames -- or having them changed involuntarily by public servants and ministers. I would like to learn more about the history of laws in Pennsylvania regulating name changes if anyone reading this knows the answer. Nelson //////////////////////////////////////////////// Kathy32656 wrote: > > Dear Dianna~ > > Boy, that Elizabeth REINHART really looks familiar to me. > I'll do some digging to see if I can find out anything for you. > It was not uncommon to find many different spelling variations of our name. > Some of our ancestors couldn't write. > So they might have been at the mercy of census takers who didn't really > care or were spelling phonetically due to strong heavy German accents. > After that, some might have just kept the spelling because they thought > that was correct. I have also seen first names abbreviated quite often. > > Was Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia Twp., Lancaster Co.? > > Kathy > > In a message dated 98-05-03 11:29:49 EDT, you write: > > > I have been researching my KAME line for many years and > > have lots of descendents of my "last" ancestor, John KAME > > aka Johannes KAHM. He married Elizabeth REINHART at > > Trinity Lutheran Church in 1806. The first record I can find > > mentioning this name is John KAM on the 1779 Supply Tax > > List of Lancaster Boro (too old to be my Johannes/John?) > > My John KAME lived in Columbia, Lancaster County and his > > 4 children were all born there. They are: > > Jacob KAME b:1809 m: Sarah MILLER > > John KAME b: 1811 married 1) Mary HIPPEY > > 2) Mary HOGENTOGLER (HOUGENDOUBLER) > > Elizabeth KAME b: 1814 m: Philip HUFFMAN > > Catherine KAME b: 1817 m: John M. FISHER > > A very gracious lady (Thank you, Audrey!) went to Silver Springs > > Cemetery to take pictures of all KAME tombstones for me. > > She reports finding a stone for Abraham S. KAMM in the midst of > > the KAME stones. Family legend says that Sarah MILLER KAME > > was told she should "change her name back to the original family > > name" but she would not as "grandfather was dead, she married him > > by that name (KAME) and he had never used the original name." > > A woman of principles, darn her. Anyone have any ideas??