Tracing German immigrant ancestors involves many challenges.  Variant spellings of names often are at the top of the list.  While this is not unique to German research, there are additional complications that add more confusion to the process.  Handwriting in records, both in the United States and in Germany may be an issue.

 

In the 16th century, the French began the tradition of giving children of both sexes multiple names at birth.  This tradition spread to Germany in the 17th century when France occupied areas in Germany and it became common practice as time passed.  When looking for old German records, such as deeds and other legal papers, it is advisable to look under both first and middle names. You also need to look for both the German name and the anglicized name. Johann, Johan, and Johannes all translate to John in English and we consider them to be the same name. In German naming patterns, Johann and Johan are always used with a second name, but Johannes stands alone. It seldom has a second name though there were exceptions. 

 

When examining German baptismal records, you will notice that all the boys in the family are given the first name Johann, and they use their second name as they go through life. It is important to know this as you look for siblings of your male ancestor, Johann.  Early on, the second name was for the infant’s baptismal sponsor. Most male infants were named Johann.  Girls were named Anna or Maria. If a child died at birth the name was used again for the next child of the same sex. The 19th century saw the custom sometimes revised to include up to four names at birth.  Later the child as an adult might go by the final name in the sequence.  

 

As time went on, the practice of naming children for their baptismal sponsor changed.  Parents named their children after individuals who were prominent in the community e.g. political leaders, or after German nobility.  This causes a problem in filing and indexing official records. Here is an example of this scenario.  In Germany, the child was named Ludwig Wilhelm. In Germany he went by the name Wilhelm as was the tradition. When he came to the United States he would adopt the Americanized version William Louis.

 

Family surnames can be equally challenging.  Surnames can be even more confusing for the researcher because many German surnames can have various spellings. Prior to the 19th century German surnames were not standardized. Germans who came to the United States communicated their names verbally but they were often written phonetically.  

 

Sometimes the spellings aren’t even logical and vary among multiple record types. Sometimes the D and T are interchanged. In German the D is pronounced like our T. Therefore a change in the spelling occurs. Other reversals are B and P, V and F, and C, G, and K.  The umlaut (two dots above the vowels ä, ö, ü) lengthens the sound of the vowel. When we write it in English, we add an e to the vowel. Therefore ä become ae, ö becomes oe, and ü becomes ue. Therefore the name Prätorious becomes Praetorious; Stöppler becomes Stoeppler, and Wüst becomes Wuest.  Some of the beginnings of German names start with Sch: Schwartz, Schmidt, Schneider, Scharff, Schulz: Kn; Knorr, Pf: Pfeil, and Neu, Neumann.  Many names have suffixes such as berg, burg, bruck, mann, furt, stein, and thal. These have meanings such as mountain, castle, bridge, man, ford, stone, and valley.

 

When German settlers came to the United States they settled in areas where there were other Germans. Thus, the German family name kept its German character as long as they stayed within those German speaking areas. When either they or their descendants moved to more English- speaking areas, many of their German surnames were either translated or changed a great deal.

 

All these issues are encountered by genealogists doing German research. At times it can be a brick wall; hopefully knowing some of the traditions of German naming will help to make research more successful. 

 

Bryan L. Mulcahy
Reference Librarian
Fort Myers Regional Library

7/2/2019