Russell Theis@CHEDSZURICH 10.02.99 10:21 Hi Sharon, Regarding your question about the use of "dit"... I have never run across "dit" because I have never done any work in French sources, but is it possible that it has a meaning like the Latin "mode" or "sive", which were used a lot to when a man married into a family and took their name as his? In other words, Bernard Theisen married into the Theis family, rather than just having a shortening of his name because of convenience or whatever? I've done a lot of work in church archives where even the same priest would sometimes use one name, sometimes the other. Maybe it depended upon how important the person was before coming into a family (having made an impression already using his original name), making the old usage hang on longer? I'd hesitate to say that it didn't pass on to female descendents on the basis of just these 3 names. My experience has been that it didn't pass on to sons either. But how 'bout if Jean (the son) were from a first marriage of Bernard, making him a Theisen. When Bernard married a Theis, his son also got the "dir" tacked on. Possible? As for changing his name to THEIS --- who wouldn't want to???? ;-) ;-) Would be interested in sharing Theis-info incidently. Give a toot! Russ Theis in Zürich