This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/HU2.2ACIB/201.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Here's a good site about German naming customs. http://www.kerchner.com/germname.htm It was not unusual at one time for all the children in a family to have the same first names after a favorite Saint of deceased relative. The second name was the one they went by. Some continued the custom for several generations after arriving in America. Maybe Minnie Bell was following this tradition?