Surnames and Places
I have chosen to standardize some family surnames and
names of places. Some names are remarkably the same, and others vary in spelling
with every recorded occurrence. Without standardization no index is very
useful – just as no writing is very good without spell checking!
Sometimes the variation is because of interchangeable
letters in old German. T and D were interchangeable as were P and B. Examples
are my surname which in the oldest church registers were sometimes TANGEL,
but later always DANGEL – remarkably, almost always exactly DANGEL.
Later, when signatures were placed in the record they
often could only write their surname as DANGEL and rarely DANGELL – never
DANGLE as I often have it misspelled.
I have removed the German female ending in most cases
for the same reason, indexing. I do not know of any of my family having their
surname changed permanently by using the female ending on unmarried children.
So DANGLERIN, etc. is DANGEL, the ERIN being a standard German addition to
surnames for female children. Usually in my notes I give the exact spelling.
Usually I have standardized on the spelling most commonly
used by cousins living in that area today. When there is still variability
today, I may use the actual spelling for those I know, even though it would
be better for indexing to have them the same. The local telephone directory
has been my guide. See the table at the end with some of my Alsacien family
names and numbers.
Names often vary with each recording. For my Slovenian
or Austrian ancestor Joseph VERSIC, each ancestor is spelled differently,
but phonetically they are about the same. The priests sometimes wrote the
records in three languages for one event: German, Latin, and Slovene. With
German having no V and Slovene having no W, each occurrence requires checking
both sections of an index. Another name from this area with interchangeable
old German letters were KRAMPERGER and the now used KRAMBERGER (P interchangeable
with B).
On pre names or first names, usually I have chosen to
use the born name spelling and use later or more modern spellings as a nickname
– in my program printed after the surname. Some cousins always use their language's
modern spelling and I am tempted to do so for indexing within surname. Some
pre names are numerous and have many variations as for Margaret. One reason
I have not standardized them is the amount of time it would take and then
which variation would I use? My family from Alsace has had name changes with
every war for centuries. Even without wars pre names change with every entry
by different priests, civil servants, or present cousins. Common names as
Maria Anna will be written differently for her birth, marriage, death, and
every child's birth. She will be Marie Anne, Anne Marie, Marianna, just Marie
or just Anne, or lately Marie-Anne with the hyphen. What name is correct?
I use born name when known.
Currently in France they seldom use an umlaut. Alsace
having been German or Austrian with the Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire
(neither holy nor Roman!) speak a German dialect at home even today. In the
past surnames often included an umlaut. Presently I know of none being used
for surnames or place names in Alsace. Usually the name has been revised to
add an extra E after the umlauted letter as MOERNACH. DURLINSDORF does not
and the umlaut on the U is ignored. Occasionally a name is used presently
both ways as there are some UBERSCHLAG and more UEBERSCHLAG in the Sundgau.
Since names are always changing and I may change some
with every edition of the genealogy, we all have to search for our best guesses.
On places, I usually use the modern location name when
possible. MOOS is an exception as I do not use the newest name of MOOSLARGUE
as I do not wish confusion with which register the data came from. With so
many French cousins, I have adopted their system of including the department
number when known, and not adding the department name, region, or country
France. Likewise, for Slovenia, I have not included the country name as they
know where they are and it seems not necessary to use with separate sections
of the web cards for each part of the family. It saves space and ink, even
though it would be more correct to have the country name as well. Other country
names are mostly in English, except where I did not standardize names from
data of cousins.
I usually use abbreviations for countries, states, and
county. I have thought about spelling them out, and taking more space to store
and print them, as well as revising places collected from other cousins, but
it would be a big time consuming job.
If you find your family name or born name in my genealogy
not to your liking, please write me and tell me what you use. I like to hear
from all cousins. I prefer to have correct full names and dates and places
for all events, even though data is suppressed for web cards on living persons.
I exchange complete data with real cousins. I like to know where they presently
live also.
| SURNAME |
Number in Haut-Rhin in October 2003 |
| BIEDERMANN |
16 |
| BIGENWALD |
5 |
| BROEGLIN |
15 |
| CASPAR |
41 |
| DANGEL |
55 |
| EGMANN |
14 |
| ENDERLIN |
144 |
| FLORY |
58 |
| GISSINGER |
82 |
| GODINAT |
13 |
| HEINIS |
103 |
| HEMMERLIN |
87 |
| HIRTZLIN |
49 |
| KANDEL |
3 |
| KLEIN |
576 |
| MACKER |
16 |
| MEISTER |
162 |
| MISLIN |
63 |
| MONA |
46 |
| MULLER |
2098 |
| PRACHT |
21 |
| ROTH |
343 |
| RUETSCH |
145 |
| SCHALTENBRAND |
1 |
| SCHLICKIN |
32 |
| SCHNEIDER |
796 |
| SIESS |
14 |
| UBERSCHLAG |
13 |
| UEBERSCHLAG |
86 |
| VETTER |
99 |
| WAGNER |
370 |
| WALTER |
478 |
| WILLIG |
130 |
| WOLFER |
31 |
| ZIMMERMANN |
572 |
James R. Dangel
1504 Sawmill Creek Road
Sitka, Alaska 99835 USA
Phone: 907-747-3348
Email:
