This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------344758B22326 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit This was on the Orangeburgh, SC mailing list and I learned a lot from it and found it interesting. Hope it helps someone. Teri Oaks --------------344758B22326 Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Return-path: <ORANGEBURGH_SC-L-request@rootsweb.com> Received: from bl-14.rootsweb.com ("port 2931"@[204.212.38.30]) by InfoAve.Net (PMDF V5.1-12 #23426) with ESMTP id <01J8EX4FCTPU9N5ANR@InfoAve.Net>; Thu, 4 Mar 1999 01:12:54 EST Received: (from slist@localhost) by bl-14.rootsweb.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id RAA02041; Wed, 03 Mar 1999 17:17:34 -0800 (PST) Resent-date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 17:17:34 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 18:06:32 -0500 Resent-from: ORANGEBURGH_SC-L@rootsweb.com From: David L Hamiter <chicora@netside.com> Subject: German Names Resent-sender: ORANGEBURGH_SC-L-request@rootsweb.com To: ORANGEBURGH_SC-L@rootsweb.com Reply-to: ORANGEBURGH_SC-L@rootsweb.com Resent-message-id: <"CizCbB.A.qf.t8d32"@bl-14.rootsweb.com> Message-id: <36DDC077.7AC69A8D@netside.com> Organization: Carolina Cousin Genealogy Research MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.05 [en] (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Old-To: Orangeburgh Listserve <Orangeburgh_SC-L@rootsweb.com> X-Mailing-List: <ORANGEBURGH_SC-L@rootsweb.com> archive/latest/4232 X-Loop: ORANGEBURGH_SC-L@rootsweb.com Hello All, Found the data below on a website. I thought some of you might find it interesting. GERMAN NAMING CONVENTIONS 1. At baptism, if two given names were given to the child, the first given name was a spiritual, saint's name, originally developed from Roman Catholic tradition and continued by the Protestants in their baptismal naming customs. The second given name was the secular or call name, which is the name the person was known by, both within the family and to this rest of the world. The spiritual name, usually to honor a favorite saint, was usually repeatedly given to all the children of that family of the same sex. Thus the boys would be Johan Adam Kerchner, Johan George Kerchner, etc., or Philip Peter Kerchner, Philip Jacob Kerchner, etc. Girls would be named Anna Barbara Kerchner, Anna Margaret Kerchner, etc., or Maria Elizabeth Kerchner, Maria Catherine Kerchner, etc. But after baptism, these people would not be known as John, Philip, Anna, or Maria, respectively. They would instead be known by what we would think of now as their middle name, which was their secular name. Thus these people would be known respectively as Adam, George, Peter, Jacob, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Catherine in legal and secular records. For males, the saint's name Johan or John was particularly heavily used by many German families. The child's secular name was really John, if and only if, at baptism he was named only John, usually spelled as Johannes, with no second given name. The name John spelled as Johannes is rarely seen spelled as Johannes as a spiritual name, i.e., you rarely will see the name at baptism recorded as Johannes Adam Kerchner, etc. It is generally always found spelled as Johan or Johann when used as a spiritual name. Thus, you find the spiritual name of John recorded as Johan Adam Kerchner or Johann Adam Kerchner, not Johannes Adam Kerchner. Many researchers, new to German names, who find a baptism of an individual with a name such as Johan Adam Kerchner, thus mistakenly spend a lot of time looking for a John Kerchner, in legal and census records, when he was known after baptism, to the secular world, as Adam Kerchner. Also when reading county histories, etc., especially those written by individuals in the 20th century, and the author is referring to someone as John Kerchner, and you are not looking for a John Kerchner, but the history sounds otherwise familiar, further research may turn up that this person was really not a John Kerchner, but instead was someone else such as a Johan George Kerchner. You would thus find all his 18th century records recorded under the name George Kerchner and not John Kerchner and therefore after checking the data and correlating the facts you may find this is really a story about your missing George Kerchner. Classic examples of this error are seen in a work titled "Genealogical and Biographical Annals of Northumberland County PA", It was published in 1911 by J.L. Floyd & Company of Chicago IL. One specific example of this misnaming error in that work is on page 659 in the paragraph in the upper left column which begins, "John Wetzel ...". This person is not a Johannes or John Wetzel but is instead a Johan "George" Wetzel and is known secularly in all legal records as George Wetzel. He was married to Eva Elizabeth Kerchner. There are many more examples in this work and other county histories written by people unfamiliar with 18th Century PA German Naming Customs. 2. The term "Senior" and "Junior" following a name did not necessarily imply a father and son relationship, as it does now. It could have been an uncle and nephew who had the same name and lived near each other. It could be a grandfather and a grandchild living together, where the father has died. It could even be two unrelated individuals with the same name but of different ages who lived near each other. So to help friends and business associates keep track of who-was-who in their discussions and records, they added on the "Sr." or "Jr." which merely meant the older and the younger, respectively. 3. The term cousin was widely used to mean an extended family, not the specific legal definition we understand it to be today. 4. It was a common practice in some German families to name the first born son after the child's paternal grandfather and the second born son after the maternal grandfather. Here are several more detailed naming patterns practiced by some families. Pattern A 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father 4th son after the husband's father's father 5th son after the wife's father's father 6th son after the husband's mother's father 7th son after the wife's mother's father 1st daughter after the wife's mother 2nd daughter after the husband's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the father's father's mother 5th daughter after the mother's father's mother 6th daughter after the father's mother's mother 7th daughter after the mother's mother's mother Pattern B The pattern B for the sons is the same as the above but this pattern for daughters was different 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother 4th daughter after the mother's father's mother 5th daughter after the father's father's mother Pattern C 1st son after the father's father 2nd son after the mother's father 3rd son after the father's oldest brother 4th son after the father 1st daughter after the father's mother 2nd daughter after the mother's mother 3rd daughter after the mother's oldest sister 4th daughter after the mother Whenever a duplicate name occurred in these patterns, the next name in the series was used. If a child died in infancy the name was often reused for the next child of the same gender. A rare twist occurred sometimes. A child's name would be reused when a spouse died and the surviving spouse remarried and had more children with the next spouse. I found this happened when a spouse had children in Germany and then his spouse died. He left his children behind in Germany, possibly with the grandparents, and then emigrated to Pennsylvania. Sometime after arrival he remarried and named his eldest son born in Pennsylvania by his new spouse with the same name as the son still living in Germany. This results in two adult children with the same name. If you are lucky enough to find a family with a lot of children, who strictly followed one of these naming patterns, then it may give you useful clues to determining the possible names of family members in earlier generations. 5. An "in" or "en", added to the end of a name, such as Anna Maria Kerchnerin, is a Germanic language name ending suffix denoting that the person is female. Thus the correct spelling of the last name in the example would be Kerchner, not Kerchnerin. 6. An "er" or "ner", added to a surname based on the name of something, denoted that the person worked with that object or at that occupation, if the main portion of the name was an object or an occupation, or that the person was from that geographic location or city, if the main portion of the name was a geographic location. Examples: Forst is German for a forest, thus Forster is one who worked in a forest or with woodlands or was from a forest. Berlin is a city in Germany, thus Berliner is one who is from Berlin. Since English is a Germanic rooted language we do the same thing in English, i.e., painnt(er), Garden(er), New York(er). The suffixes mentioned in 5. and 6. above are compounded in many cases. The nouns Kirche and Kerche are German words for church. Thus for the surname Kerchnerin, i.e., Kerch(ner)(in) we thus have a person who worked in or near a church who is female. 7. Frequently the secular name given to the child was also the same as the secular given name of one of the baptismal sponsors for the child. Said baptismal sponsors frequently were close relatives but also could be close and trusted friends and neighbors. -- David L. Hamiter chicora@logicsouth.com WEB SITE: http://www.logicsouth.com/~chicora/index.shtml ==== ORANGEBURGH_SC Mailing List ==== OKTOBERFEST XIX will be on October 15th and 16th, 1999 at the First Baptist Family Life Center, Orangeburg, South Carolina --------------344758B22326--