For my great grandfather, the US Army records has his name as DeGrilla. At least, no school teacher every tried to tell us our name was spelled wrong. David DeGrella Tennessee USA On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:26:37 EST Denise1270@aol.com writes: > > In Madeira, my grandfather used Goncalves de Freitas. Upon coming > to the US > and joining the US Army, they made Goncalves his "middle name" and > the > surname became De Freitas. We use it with the space, though we do > have cousins > using just Freitas; and another cousin whose school teacher told > them their > name was wrong spelled Goncalves but should be Gonzales! > > Denise De Freitas D'Antona > > In a message dated 1/23/2007 8:17:26 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, > david-nancy.degrella@juno.com writes: > > Making the "de" captial and part of the name is true for my name > with one > additional complication. The > "de" before Agrella made it flow so good, that Americans could not > hear > the "A". The name ended up being written DeGrella. Another note > of > interest is that my grandfather was married twice. His desendents > by the > first marriage consistently write the name with a space, De Grella, > and > the rest of us do not put a space in the name. > > David DeGrella > Tennessee USA