This naming change almost always occurred when only females were born to the farm couple. In that case the oldest sibling (in most cases) inherited the family farm. When that female married it was the custom for the groom to assume the name of the female and thus that of the farm. The name then carried forwarded. I have noted at least three name changes in perusing the available records. Mine were from the Emsbüren area near Osnabrück. And in my case I found that Dirk was the 'nickname' for Theodore. It sure confused me for some time until I had a contact in Germany who clarified the matter for me. Good hunting. Doug ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hal Kaysen" <hmkaysen@mindspring.com> To: <niedersachsen@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 2:00 PM Subject: [NIEDERSACHSEN] parish naming practice in Wiesens and Weenekirchbuchen, Aurich Amt Recently I have been searching the parish records of Wisens and Weene. The family I am searching are Löschen and Dirks. I am writing this note in the hope that other families from this region may know or understand the naming process. I am familiar with the practice of patronymics but this does not usually occur outside of Schleswig-Holstein. The problem is the change of the family name which occured in subsequent records where the name of the family name of the father named Thomsen, who married a Löschen, is dropped and the mothers last name is adopted. Following records then use the name Löschen for the family name which is brought to the U. S. when they immigrate. Watch out DNA! Also a search in the Weene records show that the Dirks was a patronymic naming of the children of Dirk Toenjes, from Schirum, Weene Parish. This is not a common practice to my knowledge in central Germany. >From the book, "Die Familien der Kirchengemeinde Wiesens (1642-1908)", >using Family Tree Maker, I have connected each family with the name of Löschen. Many of these families immigrated to the US between 1866 and 1890. I have also searched the parish register films for the period 1830 to 1874 to verify the information. Why would the parish Priest change the name of the family from that of the father to that of the mother? The Löschen families were initially known as Warfsmann or Settlerrs in the area of Wiesens and Schirum between 1800 to 1860. Why does patronymics appear in these records? I hope this is of interest to the list. Hal Kaysen, Nipomo, California _____________________________ To contact the list admin send an email to: NIEDERSACHSEN-admin@rootsweb.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NIEDERSACHSEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message