As late as 1800 at the Albany Reformed Dutch Church, a pastor was being sought who spoke both English and Dutch. The older (and more financially well-off) people in the church still spoke Dutch in their homes. They couldn't find a bilingual pastor to take the post, but a second Reformed church in Albany was being built, so the solution was to get two pastors, one who spoke English and the other who spoke Dutch. Then each pastor could conduct a single service at each church each Sunday. The second church began conducting services about 1815. At that same time, a successful businessman in the city still had to speak Dutch. So, you see, Dutch was spoken in Albany much later than most people would have imagined. Very few people that I know speak Dutch, but, fortunately, except for a few letters, Dutch sounds quite like German. Some of you will be familiar with that language. Based on pronuciation, I was recently able to match up two people in my database as being the same woman. One was named Ytje and the other Ida. In Dutch, the first would be pronounced EE-tyuh (EE-chuh in spoken language)and the other EE-tuh. That got me pointed in the right direction, and other facts clinched it. (A final 'd' or a 'd' with a vowel on either side of it would be pronounced as a 't'. I have even seen cases where a Dutch name beginning with a D was heard by the writer as a T, but not often. For example, Dirk and Tirk.) Catherine is a very common name with which people have problems, even though they don't realize it. Catherine, Catharine, Catharina and Catarina were all pronounced the same by the Dutch. COT-uh-REE-nuh. In western European languages, an 'a' would be pronounces as 'ah', or like the 'o' in hot. The 'i' would be pronounced as 'ee'. The 'h' in 'th' is silent causing 'th' to sound like 't'. The Dutch and Germans would pronounce a final -e even though in English we usually don't. COT-uh-REE-nuh is what you get. All four names were pronounced the same way, and were just spelling variations of the same name. Jacob and Yacop are the the same name because the Dutch J sounds like an English Y. A final 'b' sounds like a'p'. It didn't sound too much like we pronounce Jacob today. Remember that the 'a' in this name sounds like 'ah'. A great number of Dutch female names end in -tje or -tie in our transcriptions of the early church records. Actually, the Dutch 'j' and 'i' were often hard to tell apart. The 'i' was just a short, straight, vertical line with a dot above it. The 'j' had no curve at the bottom of it, so it was exactly the same as the 'i' except for the length of the line. Transcribers often could not tell them apart. Fortunately, they are both pronounced the same; as -chuh. This may seem improbable to some readers, but a 'j' in Dutch and German sounds like our 'y' (the German word for yes is 'ja', which is pronounced 'yah'). The 'y' and 'i' are pronounced the same; as 'ee' (when we say yes, we really say ee-es without a break between). But, remember that we have to pronounce the final vowel -e (which is -uh). What we get is -tee-uh. In Dutch, when either -tje or -tie are said in normal speech, they come out as -chuh. I got my start on Dutch pronunciation with the name Jannetje. Over a period of time, I asked four people born in The Netherlands to pronounce it for me. They all agreed that it was pronounced YON-uh-chuh. Clues given in previous paragraphs should have prepared you for this (except the location of the emphasis). Jannetje translates as Jane. I have long been interested in correct pronunciation whenever I intended to learn a few words in a foreign language. It has finally paid off in the pursuit of my ancestors. How would you pronounce Fitje? FEE-chuh. It translates as Sophia. The experience and education of the person recording a name determined what he wrote down when a person told him their name (a great many people could not spell their own name). If the recorder was Dutch, a person's name was likely to be recorded with a different spelling than if the recorder was English. The recorder put down what he heard. If two spellings sound the same, they are almost certainly the same name. The various spellings of a person's name should not throw you off. Don't assume that Catarina Van Dyke and Catherine Van Dyke have to be different women. Don't assume that either one of the spellings was the one preferred by the woman. A great many people could not read or write, but they, of course, could speak their own name. When I have two or three spellings of the same person's name, I use the one that I believe to be most Dutch. As the primary spelling, I would always pick Jannetje over Jane. I would always pick Annatje (ON-uh-chuh) over Anna (ON-uh) or Ann (ON) or Hannah (HON-uh) in a situation where I had all four names in the records for the same person. Antje (Antie) is another variation of Annatje. Hannah can also be a nickname for Johanna which ends in Hanna. Jan (yon), Johannes (yo-HON-ess), and John (probably pronounced yon by the Dutch in the early days of its use) are all the same name in eastern New York during different centuries. From my study of one Dutch family's births and baptisms, Jan was the name given to boys up until 1689. The earliest Johannes was c. 1721 (born to a Jan) and the last was 1791. John was the given name after 1791, with just two exceptions (one c. 1790 and the other in 1741). Some Dutch/German sounds Dutch/German English a ah i ee j ee final b p final d t final g k th t v f w v (the Dutch is closer to vw sounded together) Does anyone have any experiences where the pronunciation of the name was helpful in finding an ancestor? Cliff Lamere Albany, NY