While this may be true in the case of your ancestors, I would not go by this as a hard and fast rule. After years of researching my husbands family, who still lives in Germany, I have never found this to be true. Perhaps it is a regional practice and is the case in certain areas of Germany. My husbands family are from Berlin on the maternal side and Bremen,and Oldenberg, which is Northern Germany. Perhaps Southern Germany uses this practice, I dont know as I havent come across it yet. The Germans are very good at record keeping and recently Ancestry.com has staretd to list German databases. Not trying to be argumentative ,just mentioning my own experience. I have German some genealogy on my webpages if you like to veiw it http://360.yahoo.com/my_profile-3aZNZP48fqM3elMBsqiyi2PxqPXTUe2OLf7ABjw-?cq=1 Some of the names I am researching are Meentzen, Wulfing, Von der Heydt, Topken, Grote, Schleiper Randi ohlorain-request@rootsweb.com wrote: Today's Topics: 1. Re: Name Puzzel (Lilly Martin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:37:10 +0200 From: "Lilly Martin" Subject: Re: [OHLORAIN] Name Puzzel To: Message-ID: <006b01c73ba2$948da500$7e115658@pcmy> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="windows-1256"; reply-type=original Dear Readers, Anyone with German ancestors probably already knows this, but just in case this might be news for some, I will share with you the fact that many if not most Germans use their MIDDLE name as their CALLING name. For example: a baby boy is born to a family, and they christen him as : Heinrich George . He will be called at home and at school and later in adult life always as "George". This makes for confusion when after 100-200 years a genealogist like us goes to look for records and census records, and finds him legally listed as HENRY, or HEINRICH. It would make you want to believe you were finding the wrong man, when in reality he used his middle name as the calling name, and he used his TRUE first name when asked for it in LEGAL matters such as deeds, court records, and census records. This rule holds true for LADIES as well. Margaret Elizabeth is always called Elizabeth or Lizzie or Libby. Well, where did the Margaret go? They just did not use it, except on her marriage certificate, or other such legal papers. I am not sure WHY Germans do this, but I have found some Catholic people do this as well, for example some German Catholics, and some Irish Catholics. Maybe this tradition, or habit started off in Europe before the Reformation (Protestant religions) and it just stuck in certain areas. Best regards, Lilly ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 6:43 AM Subject: Re: [OHLORAIN] Name Puzzel > Dear Pat and Ken, > > I had the same trouble with my Dad's Dad.....all my life Dad told me his > Dad's name was George Henry but was called "Hank". When I "met" a > cousin on > this site, she said the grandfather's real name was Heinrich George -- he > was > married to the right grandmother's name, so I know it's him. > > I have a boss from Germany who lives on Fenn Road in Medina. She was all > in > a tizzy a few years back when the labels she ordered over the phone had > her > on "Senn" Road -- sometimes she is hard to understand with the accent, so > the > census takers could have had the same problem as Pat suggested. > > Alice > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OHLORAIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------ To contact the OHLORAIN list administrator, send an email to OHLORAIN-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the OHLORAIN mailing list, send an email to OHLORAIN@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHLORAIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of OHLORAIN Digest, Vol 2, Issue 33 *************************************** Randi Bowles-Meentzen

I also have ancestors who are from Freidewald Cassel in the northern part of Germany and have never found them using the middle name. Shirley Hunt Randi Meetzen <meetzen@sbcglobal.net> wrote: While this may be true in the case of your ancestors, I would not go by this as a hard and fast rule. After years of researching my husbands family, who still lives in Germany, I have never found this to be true. Perhaps it is a regional practice and is the case in certain areas of Germany. My husbands family are from Berlin on the maternal side and Bremen,and Oldenberg, which is Northern Germany. Perhaps Southern Germany uses this practice, I dont know as I havent come across it yet. The Germans are very good at record keeping and recently Ancestry.com has staretd to list German databases. Not trying to be argumentative ,just mentioning my own experience. I have German some genealogy on my webpages if you like to veiw it http://360.yahoo.com/my_profile-3aZNZP48fqM3elMBsqiyi2PxqPXTUe2OLf7ABjw-?cq=1 Some of the names I am researching are Meentzen, Wulfing, Von der Heydt, Topken, Grote, Schleiper Randi ohlorain-request@rootsweb.com wrote: Today's Topics: 1. Re: Name Puzzel (Lilly Martin) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:37:10 +0200 From: "Lilly Martin" Subject: Re: [OHLORAIN] Name Puzzel To: Message-ID: <006b01c73ba2$948da500$7e115658@pcmy> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="windows-1256"; reply-type=original Dear Readers, Anyone with German ancestors probably already knows this, but just in case this might be news for some, I will share with you the fact that many if not most Germans use their MIDDLE name as their CALLING name. For example: a baby boy is born to a family, and they christen him as : Heinrich George . He will be called at home and at school and later in adult life always as "George". This makes for confusion when after 100-200 years a genealogist like us goes to look for records and census records, and finds him legally listed as HENRY, or HEINRICH. It would make you want to believe you were finding the wrong man, when in reality he used his middle name as the calling name, and he used his TRUE first name when asked for it in LEGAL matters such as deeds, court records, and census records. This rule holds true for LADIES as well. Margaret Elizabeth is always called Elizabeth or Lizzie or Libby. Well, where did the Margaret go? They just did not use it, except on her marriage certificate, or other such legal papers. I am not sure WHY Germans do this, but I have found some Catholic people do this as well, for example some German Catholics, and some Irish Catholics. Maybe this tradition, or habit started off in Europe before the Reformation (Protestant religions) and it just stuck in certain areas. Best regards, Lilly ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 6:43 AM Subject: Re: [OHLORAIN] Name Puzzel > Dear Pat and Ken, > > I had the same trouble with my Dad's Dad.....all my life Dad told me his > Dad's name was George Henry but was called "Hank". When I "met" a > cousin on > this site, she said the grandfather's real name was Heinrich George -- he > was > married to the right grandmother's name, so I know it's him. > > I have a boss from Germany who lives on Fenn Road in Medina. She was all > in > a tizzy a few years back when the labels she ordered over the phone had > her > on "Senn" Road -- sometimes she is hard to understand with the accent, so > the > census takers could have had the same problem as Pat suggested. > > Alice > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > OHLORAIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------ To contact the OHLORAIN list administrator, send an email to OHLORAIN-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the OHLORAIN mailing list, send an email to OHLORAIN@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHLORAIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of OHLORAIN Digest, Vol 2, Issue 33 *************************************** Randi Bowles-Meentzen ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to OHLORAIN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message Shirley --------------------------------- The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing.