Have you ever been blocked in your research because you just can't seem to find the person by the SURNAME you have for them in databases?
Transcription and Indexing projects can be helpful but when the original handwriting is bad or the pages are faded or water damaged or the indexer did not have a clue about the ethnic surnames of the heritage/country/language they are working with, it's frustrating. The indexer was well meaning but it can mean hours of confusion for you. There you are, trying to figure out if that letter is an l or if the giant G you see is actually a J, or a T is an F. Frustration that might not be so acute if you were spinning microfilm.
I say this because I've tried to recreate years of personal research on some of the most popular databases and I can tell you that NO, I would NOT find what I did using microfilm coming up on these databases. (And in one case the clue I needed wasn't even on a microfilm but on the BACK OF A PAPER INDEX CARD! - which no one noticed when they were microfilming.)
That is why we always want to go to the original source material and see for ourselves what the index or database has taken us to. (And why I fear the destruction of source material.)
An indexer had the chance to properly translate a surname.
You have the chance.
You can use the Internet to your advantage.
I'm sure you've had the experience here on Google of searching for a topic but forgetting how to spell the word or words. The suggestion Google's intelligent search engine came up with makes all the difference because it spelled it correctly for you. IT OFTEN CAN DO THE SAME WITH A SURNAME.
(I'm also sure at least some of you have had the hideous experience of automatic word corrections doing serious damage to your message - your text. (I know my defunct cell phone did that and I started to hate texting because of all the wasted time fixing the words to what I had originally intended; sometimes the message still somehow went out wrong.)
This post is NOT to tell you that you should sit there and loose hours of your life, feeling ready to tear your hair out, trying to figure out what an indexer did not, though trying those T's that are J's and C's that are G's does sometimes make all the difference.
So here is my first tip...
USE AN ON-LINE LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR first to see if the name as you have is spelled HAS A MEANING. The translators are not always all-encompassing with their libraries of words and meanings, but this is a first step. You may be surprised at some of the meanings. Perhaps your ancestor went through life being known as Mrs. Dumpling. Or Mr. Bellybutton.
At the same time, consider that some names, such as Baker, have variations that are close to each other in various languages.
If the surname has a suffix and the translator is not bringing up a meaning, but simply restating it as a word, try that surname without the suffix.
Be sensitive to the suffix as a particular language's way of adding words that mean - of, son, daughter, or some other possessive. This may be your clue to the ethnicity and language of the person and a way of confirming that you're looking at the right documents. Sure, in some parts of the world there was ethnic mixing going on centuries ago and you may find Italians in Hungary or Scots in Poland. The incoming ethnic people may have slightly changed their name to fit into their new culture.
AN EXAMPLE:
In Polish a ski ending infers masculinity or the father, the patriarch side of the family. Ska ending infers femininity and the mother, the matriarch side of the family. However, the name may though time move into the ski ending. Ski indicates eastern slav origins and Sky indicates western sav origins.
Szke is a Hungarian suffix meaning the same. In in some families both were used or you will notice the suffix evolving.
Ski, sky, vich, iew, ow, dotter, all indicate that somewhere along the line, a person took the original root name and added a possessive. Which means that you may just find the link between the surnames in a sensible way, because you find the name without that suffix.
The name with an ow suffix may mean "The man from Krak" i.e. Krakow.
You'll notice that some possessives indicate a relationship with a person and others a relationship with a PLACE.
When it comes to places and times where people did not have to have a surname because everyone knew who was who in their village or the subculture they lived in within the village, there are two ethnic groups I can think of off hand here in which surnames were recent and did not stabilize for some time, and there was no need for legal name changes.
More on that in the next post!
This post is one of a series on the subject. Click on the tag Surname Help - AWG to get to all the posts.
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