I saw a cross posting of the following : 7-8-01 The Daily Union-Herald Fifth Wedding Anniversary Celebrated by Mr. and Mrs. John Frederick Mader At Residence in West High Street, Sunday, the 9th with Family Dinner.>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Could you put me in touch with someone who knows how Mader was pronounced by Ohioans? And by European German speakers? And is the European origin known? The reason I ask is that I have a Samuel Mateer and his family to the present. He came to Columbus between 1850 and 1860. He came from the east end of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. In 1859 he married his second wife Rebecca Shawley in Crestline, Crawford County, Oho - she had come there with her parents from Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The Shawley tribe were German speaking Reformed and Lutheran, and had come from Kurpfalz. There the name was Schally/Shally. At that time he signed his name Mater. Which is the name is family was known by in Cumberland County. I have been unable to find any line of Mater in German speaking Europe. In Europe there are isolated occurrences of the name but never a family - these individual occurrences seem more like spelling mistakes than a surname of a family. And only two boat arrivals into Philadelphia of any interest and neither of these can be traced back to European origins. There is a Mater line in early Canada but no one seems to know where they came from. One possible source of the Mater family is Maeder. There are many of these and a few Mader in Europe. We think the family in Pennsylvania pronounced the Mater as in Alma Mater. If so a Matter from Alsace who was often called Motter in York County may be the source of our Mater line. Any comments? Regards Hal