In many, many years of doing research for Germanic people, and a fascination with names, I agree with the speaker at LDS, Veronica, especially if that was Larry O. Jensen - YES! There were numerous naming patterns, varying from place to place, and these evolved along with everything else. The Koseform or Kosename (in French, the 'dit' name, in Latin "dictus", that one usually Catholic) are often the (second, third, or fourth - or "call") names carried across the ocean alone, while what we call first names, their honorific name, after a g-father, father, etc. or a Saint or a feast day or a sign of the zodiac or in ancient times, the bold, the strong, the courageous, means we may be hunting through all those films for Georg when we need to be hunting for Joh. Georg. And I'm not expert at those old BMD records, but the only underlining I've ever seen in 30 years is for the surnames. It does help enormously to learn as much of the language, the varieties of Gothic fraktur, and that Sütterlin (and other) script and abbreviations as possible. How to get around the scribbles and inkblots and blackened copies is the really hard part! We all know we cannot rely on transcribers in any database. If any of you have not yet come across Mr. Jensen's 83 pages on familysearch.org, under help - G for Germany, scroll down to his Handbook. You can read it or print it out - it's free. He and Dr. Don Watson (_http://members.cox.net/hessen/_ (http://members.cox.net/hessen/) (also free, and enormous)- all of Germany - are the experts of the experts, very nice guys, and both have a sense of humor - and humanity. Fortunately, they are also VERY patient. Maureen Schoenky in FRYING Southern California. In a message dated 7/27/2009 5:14:45 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: The church records I have been going through for Pommern all have the full name listed with only the surname underlined. I asked your question at a conference recently and the speaker (from the German desk at the LDS) said there was no consistent pattern as to what the individual was actually called in daily life. Veronica > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:11:49 -0700 > From: Morgan Cole <[email protected]> > Subject: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Which name appears in records > To: Prussia Mail List <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > I was reading an article on naming patterns that some Germans followed. I should have thought to ask this earlier. When you did have Germans that followed naming patterns, had that "Saint" first name and then the middle was the name they were called by, when it came to BMD records, how were their names written? Did BMD records list the person by both names or by the name they were called? Many thanks. > Morgan > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:08:57 +0800 > From: "David Armstrong" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PRUSSIA-ROOTS] Which name appears in records > To: <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > The ones I've seen usually have the names in full and the one by which they were known underlined. > > David Armstrong > Maylands, > Western Australia ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message **************An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221823322x1201398723/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=Jul yExcfooterNO62)