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eLearning Series: Geneology
My Family Tree is Important to Me
( 50 articles in this series )
Your
Ancestry Search:
Why Spelling Is Very Important
What’s in a name? The answer is, quite a bit
actually. If you are beginning a search of your family tree
it will help you tremendously to know the history of your family
name, or for that matter of the names of other branches of
the family. Many times names were changed when people
immigrated to this country. If a person’s name sounded too “foreign” in
a culture that was primarily of English ancestry then that
name may very well have been changed. To a lesser extent, if
the spelling of the name seemed difficult or again foreign
then it could have been changed for that reason as well.
A prime
example of simple spelling differences in languages
is in the American and British spellings of certain words.
The American word theater is spelled theatre in the UK. Defense
is spelled defence. Shop in old English is shoppe. The same
small changes often happen with names.
When
doing genealogy research you will sometimes notice names
spelled several different ways in the same document. Many years
ago standardized spellings for names didn’t really exist. Not
everyone could read and write in those days, and often members
of the same family would spell names differently. The English
name Darby for instance could also be spelled Derby, but still
pronounced the same way. Also Smith could be spelled Smithe
or Smyth, or Smythe. Maddox can also be spelled Maddux, Madux,
or even Maddoc. The Scottish name Munro was more commonly spelled
Monroe by the English. Then look at names that are translated
from one language to another. The French name Choaumote was
sometimes Americanized to Shumate, a totally different spelling.
Another reason for name changes is that immigration authorities
both made mistakes, including typographical errors, which would
stick with an immigrant, and would sometimes arbitrarily change
names on their own because they couldn’t pronounce a name or
didn’t like the spelling. For instance, the Swedish name Sjoblom,
with a silent j, is pronounced see-bloom. Some members of the
Sjoblom family had their names changed, involuntarily, to Seebloom
or Seabloom.
As another example of how names were changed is the Italian
name Tagliaferro which means iron worker. This name became
Tolliver. Another Italian name, Amici which means friend was
Americanized into Ameche. Even the families of presidents have
not been immune. Roosevelt comes from the Dutch name Van Rosevelt,
which means of the rose field. Blum, which means flower, was
Americanized into Bloom. The German name Roggenfelder which
means rye field could have been directly translated into Ryefield,
but instead it commonly became Rockefeller.
American names like the American population itself come from
all countries of the world. Remember the old movie Stripes
when Bill Murray in Army basic training said “Our ancestors
were kicked out of all the best countries in Europe”, well
most were not kicked out, but instead chose to leave. This
included Dutch settlers in New York, French in Louisiana, Spanish
in Florida and Texas, Germans in Pennsylvania, English in Virginia,
and on and on. The American melting pot and the hope of opportunity
in the new country caused most people to want to assimilate,
and many did so partly by changing their names. General George
Armstrong Custer, so well known for Custer’s Last Stand, had
a German grandfather, a Hessian solder whose name was Kuster.
Another German name, Schwab which means from Swabia became
Swope for many.
Another reason for changes were to simply make
the spelling of a name look more American, which was more common English.
Double letters such as RR or LL could be replaced by a single
letter. Common spellings in other languages, or even in British
English, were often subject to change. The common name Grover
for instance, can also be Krover, Krober, Groeber, or Crower,
as well as other spellings. Sometimes the reason for the change
in spelling was the accent of the person immigrating. Sometimes
immigration officials would hear the accent and misinterpret
it, and usually the new name stuck.
It is important to know the alternative spellings of your
family name to do a complete search of your ancestry. If you
don’t have that information you could miss vital branches of
the family tree.
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2006
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