Playing the Name Game with Ancestors

Playing the Name Game with Ancestors
By Donna Murray

With apologies to Shakespeare, your grandfather by any other name is probably still your grandfather.

Our immigrant ancestors were often labeled illiterate simply because they weren't proficient in English. They might have been quite capable of reading and writing in their native language, but were not bi-lingual. Many, of course, were not educated. After all, literacy on a national scale is a rather recent development. This lack of schooling often gets blamed for spawning the spelling variations in surnames.

Compounding the problem was the inability of courthouse clerks, census takers and other government employees to understand what the immigrant was saying due to his or her thick foreign accent. So they spelled the surname phonetically. Government workers weren't always tops in the spelling category either. A surname might be spelled three different ways in one document.

But surnames were often modified many times before the immigrant even left his homeland. My great-grandfather's surname morphed from Karchnak to Karchnjak to Karnyak over the course of three generations - and that's before he ever left Slovakia . His will reads Karnak and his tombstone says Carnock. On his son's tombstone nearby, Carnack (with an a) is prominently displayed.

The point being is that there has never been and never will be a universal way to spell any name. Take a look at the latest phone book and you'll find Smith, Smyth and Smythe.

Despite an excess of evidence, some rooters reject the possibility that they could be descendants of anyone whose surname is spelled differently from their own. They should take up another hobby.

German names often evolved to the point of not being recognizable.
German surnames were really butchered. Ulrich morphed into Ullery or Ulery, Oolery and Whoolery. Eicher became Iker and Echard. Writtenour, Ritenour and Ridenour were synonymous. Dumbauld turned into Tambald while Puh, Pfau and Buh evolved into Poe.

Foreign names were also loosely translated into English. Since Schneider is roughly the German equivalent of the English word tailor, many Schneiders (Snyder, Snider) Americanized their name to Taylor . Likewise Zimmerman converted to Carpenter and Bruner to Springer. As with other ethnic groups, Germans lopped off parts of their surnames. Snidemueller got shortened to Mueller and eventually Anglicized to Miller.

Even simple names changed
Even simple Irish names underwent modifications. Aside from dropping the "O" from O'Toole or the "Mc" McDonnell, Horan became Horn and McGeary turned into McGarry.

Names lacked uniformity
Uniformity wasn't a priority either. In one ancestor's will, her name alternately appears as Murray , Murry, and Mury. Around 1900, all branches of the family switched to the version with the ‘a.' How they collectively decided on that particular spelling remains a mystery.

A rise in the nation's literacy level brought some consistency to the spelling of surnames, at least for those families whose roots were firmly planted here. But even the most educated suffer from memory lapses. On their applications for Social Security cards, two siblings recalled their mother's birth name quite differently. One put Annie M. Gary. The other wrote Annie McGarry. In the obituary of yet another sibling, the name appeared as McGarrity.

Annie's maiden name is given as McGarry on her death certificate. Annie outlived her husband. If he had provided the information for her death certificate, her maiden name might have been spelled McGeary as it was on their marriage license application.

In retrospect, the confusion is somewhat understandable. Some time after they emigrated to America , Annie's brother, Tom, began spelling his last name “McGarry.” Who knows why? Since he was the only male family member living here, that's what stuck in everybody's mind.