Dear Julie, to add a little to Paul's excellent points of the need to verify a name/lineage from all angles, I am at the moment reading a 17th century microfilmed old German parish record wherin my ancestor is listed at birth as "Joan. Jacob." (abbrev.Latin Joannes Jacobus). Then, as a parent: "Hans Jakob"with wife Verena and a second time as plain "Jakob" w/wife Verena, while their son is named "Joan. Jacobus". I know its the same Hans Jakob because of his parents and his wife. On the same page, the various priests spell another ancestor's name from "Jörg", to "Jeörg" to "Geörg" and finally "Georg". And this is all in the same German parish between 1620 - 1628. They haven't even come to the US yet. In other words, its the verifying of parents, spouses, siblings and dates that'll get you on the right track. The way I understand it from this example is that Jakob with a "k" is the German spelling and Jacob (Jacobus) maybe the Latin sp. (?), where priests often just took it upon themselves to transcribe. Hanneli ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 5:15 AM Subject: Re: [SWITZ] Rapperswil, Bern, Switzerland > In a message dated 1/29/2003 6:03:11 AM Eastern Standard Time, > [email protected] (Julie G) writes: > > > I have two questions. 1) Is the name Jacob in America the same as Jakob in > > Switzerland? I believe that I found him and other generations, but the > > name has been changed. Any ideas on how to be sure they are the same > > person? and 2) The LDS Family Search web site lists them as being from > > "Rapperswil, Bern, Switzerland" I can't seem to find a Rapperswil, does it > > have a different name now? > > Hello Julie: > Very frequently those baptized Jakob in German-speaking countries were known > as Jacob in America. You can find Rapperswil on the map at maps.expedia.com > or other on-line map service. The spelling of the town name hasn't changed. > Some surname changes were obvious, for example Muller (u umlaut) to Mueller > or Miller, or Ries to Reese in America. Others may not be this obvious, so > you might want to look for other sources recording a name change. However, > to be sure you have found the right family, you should start with the > information about the person you are certain is your ancestor, which > hopefully will include a date of birth and parents names. Then look at the > Rapperswil LDS films for that person's birth and the names of his parents. > If that info agrees, you can continue the search back in time. If you only > have, for example, a year of birth, but no parents names, the research is a > little more difficult. If the surname was an uncommon name in a small town, > and you find the birth year of Jacob which agrees with your info, you may > have found the correct person, but that is a decision you will have to make. > If the surname was a fairly common name, you have to be even more careful, > because there is always possible that there was more than one family with the > same name living in a town, who had sons born the same year and given the > same name. Even though the families might be related, you could end up > tracing a different branch of the family. If you have only limited > information about Jakob, you might have to make some "educated guesses" about > his lineage, which can be dangerous from a genealogical standpoint. However, > as I mentioned, this is your decision. I am sure others on the list will be > able to offer additional suggestions, but I hope this has helped somewhat. > Paul C. Miller > > > ==== SWITZERLAND Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation? Gone longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/CHE/SWITZERLAND.html > to unsubscribe >