Does anybody know anything about German surnames?

Ancestry.com has a free trial for their immigration records until Dec. 31 and I was trying to look up my possible ancestors. I'd also like to look them up other places on the web. I know my ancestors came from Germany, my dad says Bonn. However, my last name is odd and does not come up in any search that I've done. Rumor has it that the spelling was changed at Ellis Island or wherever they came in to the US (kind of like Pennsylvania Deutschland). But how would I know what other spellings to look for? I can PM you my last name if that would help. But there is a "V" as the second letter and someone even told me that it must have been a "B" in German because German doesn't use "V"'s or something like that. I know this is a tough and confusing question but it has been bugging me so I figured what the hell, somebody on DU might have some advice!

Anybody?

Thanks!

but be VERY careful of Ancestry.com. You'll have to give them a credit card number to use the 30 day free trial and you are very likely to later find charges from them that you didn't authorize. If you decide to join with a monthly subscription you could find yourself charged for yearly. More than once during the 12 months.

Getting rid of AOL is magnitudes easier than stopping Ancestry.com.

Of course, I couldn't look at a lot of details without signing up. But I was able to search a bit and I did get some names (not with the last name I've having a problem with, of course).

But thanks for the warning. I had been thinking about signing up but I will be very careful now.

get back and had to have the credit card stopped in order not to end up with even more charges.

It's pronounced as an "f"

"W" in German is pronounced as a "v"

Like we'd say Darth Vader, they'd say "fodder" (father)

And the word "wasser" is pronounced vosser.

:banghead:

Bahlow, Hans. Deutsches Namenlexikon. Germany, 1967. A book on German names all in German. Some dates.

Bahlow, Hans. Dictionary of German Names (translated by Edda Gentry). University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin; 1993. A translation of Bahlow’s Deutsches Namenlexikon.

Bahlow, Hans. Deutschlands Geographische Namenwelt. Vittorio Klostermann: Frankfurt am Main, 1965. A book of German place names (in German) with a few dates. However, many of his etymologies are questionable, and a few are wrong. Use with care. Recommended for the advanced user only.

Bahlow, Hans. Mittelhochdeutsches Namenbuch. Neustadt an der Aisch, 1975. This book is full of dates and variant spellings. Its one drawback is that the book does not have an alphabetical listing of every name; instead it is only sometimes alphabetical within sections, and then by the modern form.

Bahlow, Hams. Pommersche Familiennamen. Verglag Degener & Co. Neustadt, Germany: 1982. German bynames in alphabetical order, with dates and variant spellings.

Bahlow, Hans. Unsere Vornamen im Wandel der Jahrhunderte. C.A. Stark Verlag: Limberg, 1965. A general book on names, with dates, although a lot of the dates are from after our period. Written all in German, it is useful if you can read German.

mind-boggling. I have a German ancestor who came here in 1740 and have found six different variations in the spelling of the name. Even my simple Scottish family name was misspelled on some census records during the 1800's. And we can't find the original spelling of my DH's name when his family came through Ellis Island.

Some people who have done research post their results on-line, in an effort to collect more information. I would just get creative with possible spellings.

'Sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck!

We now have a fairly common Korean last name. I laughed the first time I got a letter in the mail informing me of the many scholarships available for Korean-Americans "Just like me." :rofl: I wonder what would have happened if I had applied...

You know some people would take advantage of that "opportunity."

My DH's family was also eastern European Jewish. We think their name was shortened from the original, but can't figure out what the original name would have been. You would think at least the child of the immigrant would know the original family name, but Mr. Z.'s father didn't.

My mom has explained her lack of knowledge by saying, "No one cared when I was growing up."

but they weren't Irish, they were Dutch.

When his ancestors first came to the US, they were on a ship full of Irish immigrants. When they signed the ship's manifest, they saw everyones' name was "O'Reilly" or "O'Shea" or "O'Donald"- they thought that was what you did when you came to America, you put an "O" in front of your name. So the name was changed from "Preska" to "O'Preska"

Do you know if they ever considered dropping the "O?"

And funny considering everyone does that on St Paddy's day.

He had some long last name which the INS official had trouble with ... he knew because the guy in line ahead of him had just gone through the whole business of repeating his name over and over until the guy got it right. By coincidence (not relation) they had the same last name, so he just said his name was "the same thing" ... :eyes:

I might head over there later tonight!

with the v and w thing...

move. We had no luck locating my husband's family until we checked some maps from about 1860.

Most of my ancestors are either German or European Jewish, but there is a small offshoot on my Dad's side from a little town that has been called (alternately) Dobschau/Dobsina. Depending on the year, the town has been within the borders of several different nations between then and now.

At the moment, it's in Slovokia. It sits in th Carpathian mountains, which of course has led to many jeers from my dearly beloved partner about me being the "Scourge of Carpathia" xD

The place of origin (for my dad's mother's family...not my actual last name) was "Ruppin/Zachlin." As far as I could find, Ruppin is a county which includes Brandenburg while Zachlin is not apparently Zychlin, Poland. I could be very, very wrong. And I think I may be because those to places are VERY far apart.

Ah well, back to my historical atlas, I guess.

This is the shorthand used for "changed when we came to the U.S." Ellis Island recorded the names as they appeared on the ship manifests for the most part. Now there may have been errors on the manifest but since a German probably sailed from a German port it's less likely in your case. What is likely is that some attempt was made to simplify the spelling or to adopt a spelling based on the dialect more common in the Penn Dutch community.

As to spelling, keep an open mind. Transliterations and phonetic spellings plus attempts to Anglicize the name are possible reasons for spelling differences. Use "Soundex" searches on ancestry.com to help resolve this.

Post in the genealogy forum here http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=331

and feel free to PM me with the name if you want some more hints. I've researched some German names and unusual spellings were the norm on these lines.

1. Join the DU genealogy group. You might have more brainstorming and resources there.

2. Check immigration databases, particularly at free websites for Ellis Island and Castle Garden, for information on early arrivals in your family.

3. DO NOT EXPECT ANCESTORS TO BE CONSISTENT ABOUT SPELLING, even in official documents. That's just a feature of genealogical research.

4. Ellis Island staff members were unlikely to have changed your relatives' name, as they worked from the ship manifests. However, transcription errors occur on documents and websites. I have found mistakes in the spellings of names of people and towns due to the transcribers' misunderstanding of the handwriting on ship manifests. You can actually call up the ship manifests, too, at the Ellis Island website, and see for yourself.

5. Use genealogy and other research sources to read up on German surnames.

Keep the discussion going!


German handwriting and Gothic script:

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/rg/guide/German_Gothic99-36316.ASP

Ellis Island:

http://www.ellisisland.org

Castle Garden (another New York immigration point of entry, but before Ellis Island):

http://www.castlegarden.org

direction.

Born & bred German.

My ancestors were partly "Pennsylvania Dutch" too. Some of the surnames in my ancestral line are Engel/Engels, Bittinger/Biddinger, and Heinze.

My folks hail from Solingen, Germany originally. Then on to Ellis Island, and down into Pennsylvania and Western Maryland, before moving to West Virginia. I dunno if I can help, but I'm willing to try. :)

My family made swords in Solingen--it was their trade and specialty. We have two of them left, probably worth a small fortune now. Alas, they are in the possession of my Great-Aunt, and unlikely to ever be passed down to me.

Think I'll get any interesting hits with that one?

j/k :)

there are books on German immigrants, Germans to America 1850-1900 has about 60 volumes. Also, there are free lists on Rootsweb where you can ask about the name - for example, there is a Bavarian list, a Wuerttemberg list, etc.

Feel free to PM me the name.