Not in genealogy, but during the Vietnam War, I worked for the Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station - the place ALL military came in to get their physical and then to get orders to go to boot camp. We had identical twins come in, with their birth certificates in an envelope (which they had never looked at - guess Mama gave it to them, but she must not have ever looked at it either). Anyway, their birth certificates were in there, but their last names were spelled differently!! The boys had a fit when we had to enlist them under the last name spellings shown on their "official" document. I always wondered if they ever went to court to get it straightened out! Sharon ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Athey" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 3:49 PM Subject: [WVHAMPSH-L] Name Transitions > Hi Listers, > > I have recently been pondering over my many years of research notes, and > one thing that struck me early on was how name transitions came about. > > With my Athey side the men had the odd habit of switching their first > and middle names. The first noted for the practice was my great > grandfather. He used the name Thomas Brant Athey. When I started > locating the family in censuses, I discovered that his given name was > David Thomas Athey, after his grandfathers David Ray and Thomas Athey. > So why Thomas Brant? I knew that his aunt, Mary Athey had married Levi > Brant, but I couldn't imagine a close relationship, because Thomas Athey > lived in Hampshire County and Levi and Mary Brant lived in Cumberland, > Maryland. But later an elderly aunt told me that she remembered that > Thomas had told her that the Brants had taken him in during the Civil > War when his father, William N. Athey was away with McNeill's Rangers > and times were tough. Afterwards, Thomas dropped the David and was > known as Thomas Brant Athey. Mystery solved! > > My grandfather always used the name Harry Athey, but when I found his > birth record in Mineral County, WV he is named as James H. I asked my > Uncle Gerald about this and he said that he thought that Harry didn't > know his birth name was James, but later I found him in the 1910 and > 1920 census and he lists himself as James H. > > My father always used the name Earl David, but his birth certificate > says David Earl, same as mine. So far, I haven't flipped my name. ;-) > > With my German names, transitions can be explained by Americanization: > > Wilhelm Heinrich Schneider becomes William Henry Snyder > Hardten becomes Harden > Koch becomes Cook > Burkhardt becomes Burkett > Muller becomes Miller > Fuchs becomes Fox > > What is the point of this posting? Never accept anything as fact until > you have sufficient documentation to assure you that it is a fact. > > Anybody else have any interesting names transitions? >