ROOTS & BRANCHES

Last week’s “Roots & Branches” column talked about using German phonetics as a way to overcome spelling changes based on those phonetics.

I also introduced my modest attempt at helping researchers diagram the gamut of surname spelling variations with the “phonetischen Namenkarte” or pNK for short.

This same diagramming aid (which, as noted last week, is found on my www.jamesmbeidler.com website as a pdf copy – go to the “Lectures” tab and look up  the lecture “German Names and Naming Patterns”) can also be assistance in looking a spelling variants for German town names, too.

However, it’s worth noting that spelling “changes” for town names often evolve in a different way.

Surname variations most often result from the fact that until the second half of the 20^th century, the individual involved was not spelling their name for documents that were recorded – it was being spelled for them by a minister, census enumerator, courthouse clerk or some other third party who may or may not have had much drive to “spell it right.”

When it comes to German town names, a re-spelling by an official is always possible, but there are a number of other considerations, too.

First and foremost of these is that the town name may be transmitted strictly by word of mouth – perhaps for several generations – before someone attempts to write it down.

And then when it’s written down, there are several generations of potential “mishearings” that might have to be “de-evolved.”

Attempting to find the village could also be hindered by it now being known primarily by its name in another language – often French in the Alsace-Lorraine area (part of the German Empire from 1871-1918) and Polish in the many formerly Prussian areas now part of Poland (which were German dominated for a couple of centuries after so-called “Partitions” wiped Poland off the map in 1795).

Finally, the name of the place of origin might well not be the town name at all – the family tradition as transmitted may name the largest city near the town of origin, much as an American travelling abroad might say they are from “near Philadelphia” rather than one of many smaller areas.

But despite these limitations, the pNK can help “peel back the layers of the onion” relating to spelling changes over time.

As one example, a professional client of mine’s immigrant ancestor was reputedly from a Rhineland town named “Bartenback.” I diagrammed this town name as (B or P) (ar) (t, th, or d) (en) (-back or -bach).

It was gratifying to find the actual town (now in the German state of Saarland but the part of the Prussian Rhineland) of Bardenbach, which fell within the variants predicted by the pNK.