Linda Muessig <lmuessig@ptdprolog.net> >Could this be fershtein? Understand? >Maxard@aol.com wrote: >> I was always asked after a good talking to, FERSTAY? My spelling, but I knew >> it meant UNDERSTAND? Somebody else previously pointed out that the Standard German for this was versteh, which is pronounced approx. fur-shtay. The wide varieties of English spellings that we're using here in trying to write the same PA Dutch word that is so familiar to us, is similar to the wide variety of English spellings that English clerks used to try to write Pa Dutch surnames. Consider the similarity of the above spellings with the surname spellings in this previous query to PA DUTCH: Elizabeth Staman <Ominer@aol.com> wrote several months ago: >I am trying to unravel several Lancaster Co. PA names and figure out mine! >The spelling variations are: >STEMEN, STAMAN, STAYMAN, STONEMAN, STEINMAN, STANMAN >Where STONEMAN and STEINMAN pronounced like "Stemen" in the 1700s or just >poorly spelled by someone?? Or are they entirely different names... (Note: STONEMAN is translation of STEINMAN, while the others probably represent attempts to spell the German STEINMAN with English spelling rules.) If we pay attention to all the variations that we're using in spelling Shmearkayse, shtroobley, etc., we can probably pick up some insight regarding the how's and why's of the spelling variations that occur in our PA DUTCH surnames in the 1700's and later. By the way, I think this is a good argument for the premise of this list that PA Dutch genealogy is best when it doesn't take place in a cultural vacuum. Ed Book