Listers, Remembered another interesting thing about the spelling of last names Sometimes each sibling adopted their own version of the spelling of their last name. I have one family in my ancestoral line that has as many spellings as they had siblings. Each spelling different yet you would pronounce it the same orally. Also some took a version of their mother's surname and some their father's. To make it more confusing it did not follow gender lines Here are some examples Mother's name Rosen Names adopted Rossen Rose Rosen Roseen Father's name Schmidt Names Adopted Schmitt Schmit Schmid Schmidt Smitt Fun fun fun HELEN in PGH
Helen, I have a similar story. Some years back I received an email from a cousin's wife in Grove City. She wanted to start tracing her family tree. I bought her a copy of TMG because that's what I use and it would make it easy for her to include her husband's tree which was pretty much completed. A year later I'm going through my Inbox, deleting old and useless email when I came across her letter so I called her and asked how she was doing......... only to be told that she couldn't find a single thing. That didn't make a lot of sense, even for a beginner, so I told her to send me whatever she had on her family and I would see what I could find. Well, the gal's nice but she seems to have hidden behind the door when brains were handed out. It took quite a few calls and emails to remind her that I needed everything. Finally I had all that she had and it took me about 1/2 hour to understand WHY she couldn't find anything.......... her ancestors were Polish. Her immigrating ancestor came with a complete family to this country in 1908. As each of the kids got married and/or left papa's domain, they changed the spelling of their last name...... each and every one of them. I suspect the problem was caused, at least in part, by illiteracy. My cousin's wife's grandmother (phew!!) was married in 1928 at the age of 28 and she had to sign her marriage license with an " X ". Imagine! Age 28 and she couldn't read or write. It took me 2 days, IIRC, to track down every one of her ancestors. A couple of weeks later, I drove up to Grove City, picked up her and one of her Polish uncles and we drove first to Franklin, Venango County's seat, and then to Oil City where darkness, cold and much wind forced us out of a cemetery at dusk. There were but 2 more places to check, one being the church were many of her family were married and a plumber descendant who might have been able to shed more light since he never left Oil City. I've been researching for about 30 years and have been pretty lucky with my own name with most variations being the archaic spelling which Germany outlawed way after my ancestors left the homeland for America. The archaic spelling is phonetically the same way the name has been spelled for the last 200 years so it really hasn't been a problem. Now, if you go to Linda's family, then the story changes............ :-D Her great grandfather, Italian, came to this country with one name, his son changed it to another and the grandson (Linda's dad) anglicized it when he joined the Pittsburgh Police Dept in 1949. Fortunately Linda's grandfather then was alive to verify the info. Most should be so lucky!! Al At 09:15 AM 12/24/2010, you wrote: >Listers, >Remembered another interesting thing about the spelling of last names >Sometimes each sibling adopted their own version of the spelling of >their last name. >I have one family in my ancestoral line that has as many spellings as they >had siblings. Each spelling different yet you would pronounce it the same >orally. Also some took a version of their mother's surname and some their >father's. To make it more confusing it did not follow gender lines >Here are some examples >Mother's name Rosen >Names adopted >Rossen >Rose >Rosen >Roseen > >Father's name Schmidt >Names Adopted >Schmitt >Schmit >Schmid >Schmidt >Smitt > >Fun fun fun >HELEN in PGH > > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >Visit our Allegheny County, PA Website: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paallegh/ >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >PAALLEGH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
Immigrants faced a lot of hurdles when it came to their name. Early census takers were not necessarily good spellersand worse writers. The people they were interviewing were often times illiterate with heavy accents that didn't sit well on the ears of the census taker. Spelling of a last name was not consistent even within the same family. And when it came to county offices and churches it got worse. Within my family I have found the last name 'Dieling/Deiling' spelled 13 different ways - the worse mistakes being in church baptismal, burial and marriage records. The family did fairly well, but the officials were something else again. Just keep an open mind and ear! > Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:12:31 -0500 > To: paallegh@rootsweb.com > From: alenkner@stargate.net > Subject: Re: [ALL] name changes > > > Helen, > > I have a similar story. Some years back I received an email from a > cousin's wife in Grove City. She wanted to start tracing her family > tree. I bought her a copy of TMG because that's what I use and it > would make it easy for her to include her husband's tree which was > pretty much completed. > > A year later I'm going through my Inbox, deleting old and useless > email when I came across her letter so I called her and asked how she > was doing......... only to be told that she couldn't find a single > thing. That didn't make a lot of sense, even for a beginner, so I > told her to send me whatever she had on her family and I would see > what I could find. Well, the gal's nice but she seems to have hidden > behind the door when brains were handed out. It took quite a few > calls and emails to remind her that I needed everything. Finally I > had all that she had and it took me about 1/2 hour to understand WHY > she couldn't find anything.......... her ancestors were Polish. > > Her immigrating ancestor came with a complete family to this country > in 1908. As each of the kids got married and/or left papa's domain, > they changed the spelling of their last name...... each and every one > of them. I suspect the problem was caused, at least in part, by > illiteracy. My cousin's wife's grandmother (phew!!) was married in > 1928 at the age of 28 and she had to sign her marriage license with > an " X ". Imagine! Age 28 and she couldn't read or write. > > It took me 2 days, IIRC, to track down every one of her > ancestors. A couple of weeks later, I drove up to Grove City, > picked up her and one of her Polish uncles and we drove first to > Franklin, Venango County's seat, and then to Oil City where darkness, > cold and much wind forced us out of a cemetery at dusk. There were > but 2 more places to check, one being the church were many of her > family were married and a plumber descendant who might have been able > to shed more light since he never left Oil City. > > I've been researching for about 30 years and have been pretty lucky > with my own name with most variations being the archaic spelling > which Germany outlawed way after my ancestors left the homeland for > America. The archaic spelling is phonetically the same way the name > has been spelled for the last 200 years so it really hasn't been a > problem. Now, if you go to Linda's family, then the story > changes............ :-D Her great grandfather, Italian, came to this > country with one name, his son changed it to another and the grandson > (Linda's dad) anglicized it when he joined the Pittsburgh Police Dept > in 1949. Fortunately Linda's grandfather then was alive to verify > the info. Most should be so lucky!! > > Al > > > > > At 09:15 AM 12/24/2010, you wrote: > > >Listers, > >Remembered another interesting thing about the spelling of last names > >Sometimes each sibling adopted their own version of the spelling of > >their last name. > >I have one family in my ancestoral line that has as many spellings as they > >had siblings. Each spelling different yet you would pronounce it the same > >orally. Also some took a version of their mother's surname and some their > >father's. To make it more confusing it did not follow gender lines > >Here are some examples > >Mother's name Rosen > >Names adopted > >Rossen > >Rose > >Rosen > >Roseen > > > >Father's name Schmidt > >Names Adopted > >Schmitt > >Schmit > >Schmid > >Schmidt > >Smitt > > > >Fun fun fun > >HELEN in PGH > > > > > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > >Visit our Allegheny County, PA Website: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paallegh/ > >------------------------------- > >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > >PAALLEGH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > Visit our Allegheny County, PA Website: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paallegh/ > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PAALLEGH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message