Alta: The surname of Zimmerman changed to Carpenter in Lancaster Co. PA as well as in Lincoln Co. NC.? I have an antiquarian?book on the Swiss, and it tells how a Zimmerman family who immigrated in the 1700's changed its surname, and I think it was shortly after arriving here.? I'm not aware of when these names were switched in NC, but its possible they were all the same family group and originated from Lancaster Co. PA? Richard Most Lincoln County researchers are familiar with the name change of Zimmerman to Carpenter, for instance; however, that was a wide-spread or wholesale changing of surname and is not the same, in principle, as legally changing a single individual's surname -----Original Message----- From: nclincol-request@rootsweb.com To: nclincol@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 3:00 am Subject: NCLINCOL Digest, Vol 3, Issue 36 Today's Topics: 1. Re: Legal name changes (Alta Mitchem Durden) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:12:43 -0500 From: Alta Mitchem Durden <altamdurden@aol.com> Subject: Re: [NCLINCOL] Legal name changes To: nclincol@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <8CA3E71B1B7CF58-123C-1E7F@FWM-D43.sysops.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I have a question (which involves the question mark.)? If you know, please tell me: Why are there question marks interspersed in my messages to this list?? What can I do to eliminate these unintended question marks?? [There should be just one question mark after that last sentence and no question mark after this sentence.]? Thank you.? Alta ? -----Original Message----- From: Alta Mitchem Durden <altamdurden@aol.com> To: nclincol@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 11:33 am Subject: Re: [NCLINCOL] Legal name changes This is very interesting and is reference to a North Carolina law that seems to be rare, or at least not very well known.? It might prove even more interesting ... and very helpful, too ... if an effort were made to obtain the court minutes with regard to change of the name of Jonas Beneigh to Jonas Anthony in 1801 where the Father was Benjamin Anthony of Lincoln County.? That way, we might be able to learn the attendant circumstances under which this name change came about, and perhaps learn if the same or similar circumstances were present in the particular instances in which we, as researchers in other families,?might be able to apply.? Most Lincoln County researchers are familiar with the name change of Zimmerman to Carpenter, for instance; however, that was a wide-spread or wholesale changing of surname and is not the same, in principle, as legally changing a single individual's surname in an isolated incidence. We know, from January 1814 Lincoln County Court Minutes, that the name of Salley Tucker's illegitimate daughter was "Polley Tucker", who was then?"about five years & six months old" when she was bound to "Benjn. Hull until she arrive to lawful age"; however, because ... intermittently, both?before and after?her death in Bond County, Illinois in 1887??... "Polley Tucker" used, interchangeably and was known by, these two pre-marital surnames:?Scott and Mitchum/Mitchem),?in addition to her birth?surname of Tucker ...there probably does not exist a clear-cut path to understanding what actually happened along the way in the case of "Polley"/Sarah/Sally Tucker/Scott/Mitchum/Mitchem who married Thomas Cline in Lincoln County in 1825. What a challenge ... or is this more likely a "mission impossible"? Alta Mitchem Durden ?? -----Original Message----- From: AaronGFett@aol.com To: nclincol@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 9:14 am Subject: Re: [NCLINCOL] Legal name changes Saw this on another list, it includes at least one person from Lincoln Co, NC _http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/ncbertie/2003-01/1043621294_ (http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/ncbertie/2003-01/1043621294) **************The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. Go to AOL Music. 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In the German language zimmerman means carpenter. The name was not changed; it was converted to English. Another example, schnider means tailor. This converted to Snider and Taylor. rricabee@aol.com wrote: > Alta: > > The surname of Zimmerman changed to Carpenter in Lancaster Co. PA as well as in Lincoln Co. NC.? I have an antiquarian?book on the Swiss, and it tells how a Zimmerman family who immigrated in the 1700's changed its surname, and I think it was shortly after arriving here.? I'm not aware of when these names were switched in NC, but its possible they were all the same family group and originated from Lancaster Co. PA? > > Richard >

Kathy - I realize "changing" the surname of "Zimmerman" to "Carpenter" was done because it was, in effect, an "Americanizationing" of the German name into an English/American form. In one sense, "Zimmerman" has not been "changed" to "Carpenter", because "Zimmerman/Carpenter" keeps the same meaning, but not the same spelling or the same pronounciation. To the extent that "Zimmerman" has changed its spelling and its pronounciation, then, in another sense, an effective " change" has resulted. There are many of the German surnames "converted" from their Germanic forms into their American "counterpart" names ... particularly in the area of Lincoln County, North Carolina. One other such surname that comes to mind, in addition to those that you list, is "Cline/Kline/Klein", which means "Little" and which surname ("Little") was adopted by settlers in that area whose names were originally "Cline/Kline/Klein". Alta -----Original Message----- From: Kathy Gunter Sullivan <sully1@carolina.rr.com> To: nclincol@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 5:25 pm Subject: Re: [NCLINCOL] surname of Zimmerman changed to Carpenter in Lancaster Co. PA as well as in Lincoln Co. NC. In the German language zimmerman means carpenter. The name was not changed; it was converted to English. Another example, schnider means tailor. This converted to Snider and Taylor. rricabee@aol.com wrote: > Alta: > > The surname of Zimmerman changed to Carpenter in Lancaster Co. PA as well as in Lincoln Co. NC.? I have an antiquarian?book on the Swiss, and it tells how a Zimmerman family who immigrated in the 1700's changed its surname, and I think it was shortly after arriving here.? I'm not aware of when these names were switched in NC, but its possible they were all the same family group and originated from Lancaster Co. PA? > > Richard > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NCLINCOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ________________________________________________________________________ More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com