Re: ADAC Maxi Atlas of Germany http://www.travelessentials.com has them. $24 + $8 shipping UPS Ground > > Do you have a url for the publisher? If so does it tell cost, how to > order from the USA and methods of payment accepted? > > bob gillis

I have found a surname that sometimes ends with e, er, or es (Meng, Menge, Menger, Menges). My late father-in-law said that the original name used to end with e. Is there a convention that would explain why the same surname might sometimes end with an extra e, er, or es? Is this a Latin version? Secondly, I have found several ancestors who were Baptized or Christened in both the Catholic and the Evangelical church. Was this done for political reasons or were the parents of different religions? Thank you for any ideas on this. Karen

Hi Karen, Having now looked through many years of old German handwritten documents (on microfilm), I believe that spelling in the "old country" was truly not a big priority in the grand scheme of things. Some recorders were meticulous about spelling, and were obviously more literate and consistent and careful (and had better handwriting); others were terrible on all counts. Some local individual church recorders had their own quirks (spelling all names in Latinized or Polish versions, for example); during French occupation names were recorded in French versions, while the people later reverted to using German versions (or, after moving to America, used English versions). In researching family trees, I have learned to cast a wide net to catch all possibilities of spellings, and then rule some out over time after seeing more records in that geographic area. You really have to get a feel for how the records were kept in a certain place and time, to see who was included in your target surname and how the spellings and recording varied. The handwriting alone can be a huge puzzle, where you need to see LOTS of examples of the handwriting to figure out how a given name or word was intended to be spelled. When I look up ancestors in old German documents, I always read over LOTS more pages than just the one I find my people on. It gives a great idea of the person doing the recording, and the neighbors and the neighborhood. In the old country the females of a surname often had (not always) "-in" added to their name. So that Johann Georg Gilger's sister might be recorded as "Anna Elisabetha Gilgerin." Or not! It depends on time and place whether this happened or not. I can't describe or explain the rules of it, but I can tell you to watch out for it and realize that Gilgerin or any other German surname ending in "-in" might well be the feminine version of the surname more commonly used without the "-in." Perhaps your Menger and Menges were originally Mengin, with the crabbed old terrible handwriting misinterpreted by some secondary recorder somewhere. Who knows? I would accept the variations as being included in your search until otherwise ruled out. I too have found relatives baptized in both the Katholische and Evangelische church records. I do not know why! I am only grateful for the duplication and the information being available. Perhaps one church or one pastor was closer for the desired early baptism and the baby was re-baptized later when a trip to the preferred denonimational pastor or church was possible. Or, if the dates of baptism are the same in both records, perhaps one church passed on the record to the other. All I can say is, I have seen this too. It evidently wasn't uncommon. Happy hunting, Michelle Stone Karen Meng wrote: > I have found a surname that sometimes ends with e, er, or es (Meng, Menge, > Menger, Menges). My late father-in-law said that the original name used to > end with e. Is there a convention that would explain why the same surname > might sometimes end with an extra e, er, or es? Is this a Latin version? > > Secondly, I have found several ancestors who were Baptized or Christened in > both the Catholic and the Evangelical church. Was this done for political > reasons or were the parents of different religions? > > Thank you for any ideas on this. > > Karen > > > > ********* > Information for list members: http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/PFALZ.html > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PFALZ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >