RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Europe => Topic started by: sarah99 on Thursday 18 August 05 10:16 BST (UK)
-
Hi
I have found a reference to the naturalisation of a Russian ancestor in 1912 in the national archive - which is great. His name is down as Simon Wolman, known as Simon Wallman. Can I assume from that that his original Russian name was Wolman?
Sarah
-
Hello
It seems so. There is a record online too here http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/archiveSearch.asp?WebType=0&Referer=full
Regards
Jonathan
-
Hello Jonathan
I am extremely grateful for the reference to the London gazette - as I have found a second Simon Wolman living in Manchester and I thought I might have found the wrong one - the address in the gazette confirms that it is indeed correct!
I have been doing a bit more research on ancestry.com and have found that his son was registered under the name Wollman in 1898 - so I suppose the difficulty comes in translating Russian into English?
All in all I've had quite a fruitful morning this morning - so thank you again for your valuable contribution.
Regards
Sarah
-
Hi Sarah:
The Russian language doesn't have a sound for 'W', therefore the Russian spelling may be Волман which would be pronounced 'Volman' and as a few languages (Dutch, German etc) pronounce 'W' as 'V' it's likely that immigration transliterated it back to 'W'.
Al.
-
Thanks for that Al - that's interesting and very useful - I thought that the immigrant would choose a name - but it sounds like their name was almost chosen for them by immigration.
Kind regards
Sarah