Just helped somebody out with this and thought it would be useful to others:
What were they called: Many people emigrating to a new country have changed their names
- to avoid political repurcussions,
- to "disappear" from view, as far as the "Old Country" was concerned
- "new country, new start in life", trying to fit in
- the old name was hard to understand, so the name was anglicised, either voluntarily, or, in some cases, arbitrarily by immigration officials
Whatever the reasons, it makes life difficult for us, unless we know both the "before & after" names.
Here a some of the simpler name changes:
1) straight translation. the name looks similar and has the same meaning
e.g. Braun => Brown, Schmidt => Smith, Grun or Grün => Green, Müller => Miller, -feld => -field, etc
2) losing the umlaut vowels (pronounced: um-lout)
the official, alternative spellings for ä,ö, ü, ß are ae, oe, ue, ss. But on emigrating, many just dropped the umlaut => a, o, u,
e.g. Gröbener => Groebener or => Grobener
But: ä can be pronounced 'ay' as in Hay or 'e' as in hedge, so Bäcker might become Becker (soundex) or Baker (translation) or Backer (lose the umlaut)
Any other suggestions ??
p.s.
The exception confirms the rule:
Looking through the Susser Archive:
http://www.eclipse.co.uk/exeshul/susser/dentists.htm I found this sentence, which I just have to share with you:
".. Abraham ben Isaiah, otherwise known as Moses Abraham Groomsfelt, or Jones,
a silversmith .."
I found the idea of changing his name to JONES amusing.
I could understand GROOMFIELD or something similar, but JONES !!
--- the mind boggles. There has to be a story there !
Edited: 02.04.2005
cell has just posted a "searching for " story on
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,47221.0.htmlHer ancestor changed his name from
Karlson to
Carlson !!!!
Author
Logged
