Looking for information on KAEURS / KAUIERS

[kazales]

There is a german site: http://gedbas.genealogy.net/index.jsp where german researchers upload their family trees.
Try entering your name(s) here and go through the results. Sometimes a name will jog memories

Thanks for the tip Bob, I put a name in, a tree popped up and i emailed the contributor & it turns out we are 3rd cousins living on opposite ends of the globe...Amazing hey!!

I liked the tip.  Unfortunately no good for me.  After information on Kauiers, Kauers, etc etc, too many different spellings.  But no luck.

Moderator Comment: split off to new topic

[kazales]

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.html
Her ancestor changed his name from Karlson to Carlson !!!!

Hi Bob,

I found your post very interesting and wondered of you could help me.

My 3rd Great Grandfather came to Australia, his death certificate states he was born in Prussia  about 1834. His marriage certificate states he was born in Hanover Germany.  Not sure if he came direct to Australia or via another country. Maybe around 1852. His surname was Kauiers on his death certificate here in Oz, however it was transcribed on some of his children's birth and death certificates as Kauers,  Kauier, Kaniers Kanier Kauirs etc etc.

I cannot find anything about his past history in Prussia, could there be a  German translation for Kauiers that you would be aware of or would you be able to give many any pointers on where to start searching.

With fingers crossed Kaz

[Svenja]

Hi

Hannover was and still is a city, but it also was the name of a historic county.
Hannover belongs to the Bundesland Niedersachsen, and here are the archives:

https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/start.action

There you can find some documents with the surname Kauers or Kauert in it.

But the surname Kauers also existed in the areas of Westfalen and Rheinland.

Regards
Svenja

[kazales]

Thanks Svenja
 Found some names but not enough information for me to know if they are related to us or not.