MARY KIRCHER RODDY
  • Home
  • Coaching and Research
  • Lectures
    • Upcoming and Past Presentations
  • Searching For Stories blog
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Privacy Policy

Searching for Stories

Channeling The Terminator

4/11/2017

5 Comments

 
When you can’t find your ancestor on a census, you might need to be a little creative.  Think of how your ancestor might have pronounced his name,  and with those sounds in your head, think of what letter combinations might be used to spell that word.
​
At a recent presentation I gave, one of my attendees related that he looked for his ancestor “Oscar” and finally found him under the name “Auskar.”  Totally makes sense – Aukland, New Zealand begins with the exact same sound as Oscar.  “Aw” makes the same sound as well.

When your ancestor is an immigrant, their pronunciation of a word may look far different from the way it looks on paper.  I’ve found myself channeling The Terminator, Arnold “Ah-nuld” Schwarzenegger recently as I research some of my German immigrant ancestors.
My great-great grandmother had a brother named Herman.  His baptismal record shows Johann Hermann,[i] but his obituary[ii] and gravestone[iii] show him as Herman so I think that must be what he was “called.”  Herman.  HER-man.  I mean how hard can that name be to pronounce?

But when I first found the family on a census in the US, I thought there was another son I didn’t know about.  I even went back and looked for a baptismal record for this mysterious son.  No luck.  And then I channeled The Terminator.  How might he have said “Herman”?  Er-mun?  Maybe Ahr-mun? 

And I realized that mysterious “nutty” son “Almond” on the 1850 census, was indeed Herman. 

Picture
"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M85Q-HVT : 9 November 2014), Castian Frethoff, Tazewell county, part of, Tazewell, Illinois, United States; citing family 176, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.)

Next time you can’t find your ancestor on the census, say their name aloud, as they might have spoken it.  Maybe you’ll “Terminate” your own census struggles.
​

​[i] "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N6F5-H3G : 28 November 2014), Johann Hermann Fruehauf, 02 Jan 1831; citing ; FHL microfilm 70,015, 70,016, 70,017, 70,018, 70,019, 70,020.

[ii] “Suddenly Called,” The Pantagraph, Bloomington, IL, 30 May 1891, page 3

[iii] Herman Fruhauf, Find A Grave Memorial# 112171351, www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 April 2017
5 Comments
Elizabeth H. link
4/11/2017 06:11:24 pm

This reminds me of finding my father-in-law in the 1930 US Census listed as Hattie, a female child. When I told him about it, he imitated his Hungarian-born mother saying his name, which sounded like Hattie instead of Harry. See https://frommainetokentucky.blogspot.com/2011/05/tuesdays-tip-errors-in-census-records.html.

Reply
Mary Kircher Roddy link
4/11/2017 06:15:18 pm

Thanks for your note, Elizabeth. I enjoyed your post about a very similar situation.

Mary

Reply
Jana Last link
4/14/2017 10:53:20 pm

Mary,

I want to let you know that your blog post is listed in this week's Fab Finds post at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2017/04/follow-friday-fab-finds-for-april-14.html

Have a great weekend!

Reply
Marian
4/20/2017 10:22:49 am

This is excellent advice. Next we need to learn to channel the non-standard writer and too-imaginative indexer, I think. On the occasions when Bilyeu gets written correctly, it gets indexed as Bilyen, Belyen, Bilger, even Bliger. Think of all the ways that Furneaux can be mis-written and mis-read, beginning with upper-case T. The search algorithms for similar spellings seem to fail a lot for these names. Is it because they are French?

Reply
KAYTHEGARDENER
9/9/2018 01:50:09 am

For your German relative, Johann might be his formal first name, but the "middle" name was his Rauf name (used by family & friends & neighbors)... Unfortunately not all church records use the middle name as well, so there are a lot of ambiguous people...
Once I tried to help a researcher where all 6 sons were named Johann, but had differing middle names!!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Mary Kircher Roddy is a genealogist, writer and lecturer, always looking for the story.  Her blog is a combination of the stories she has found and the tools she used to find them.

    Read more of Mary's writings at "Adventures of A Broad Abroad" and at Letters from Limerick

    Archives

    April 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    Achard
    Ahern
    Aldrich
    Amador County Genealogy
    Ancestry.com
    Archives
    Blair County
    Bradley Family
    Brannack
    Brannock
    Brown
    Brown Family
    California Genealogy
    Cemetery
    Census
    Citations
    City Directories
    Clark County
    Death Records
    DNA Strategies
    Education
    Enslaved People Research
    FamilySearch
    Family Stories
    Fields Family
    Freuhauf
    Genealogy Conferences
    Genealogy Education
    German Research
    Germany
    Graham Family
    Grandparents
    Hardy
    Hartmann
    Indexes
    Ireland
    Kircher
    Letters
    Lunenburg
    Map
    Mapping Tools
    Midwest Resources
    Midwives
    Military
    Newspaper
    Newspapers
    New York
    Ohio
    Pennsylvania
    ProGen
    Railroad
    Records
    Research Techniques
    San Francisco
    Sonoma County Genealogy
    Spreadsheets
    Springer
    Tiburon
    Timelines
    Virginia
    Virginia Genealogy
    Vital Records
    War
    Webster
    World War II Research
    Writing

     Subscribe in a reader

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Coaching and Research
  • Lectures
    • Upcoming and Past Presentations
  • Searching For Stories blog
  • Publications
  • Contact
  • Resources
  • Privacy Policy