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Richard Schumacher
Junior member
USA
53 Posts |
 Posted - 11/09/2008 : 03:46:42
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Are there any resources that may be referenced to sort out the common problem of corruption of traditional names after immigration? Different alphabets and accents seem to be one source, especially during the middle and later 1800's.
I have run into this on my Norwegian, Swedish and German research where the early U.S. records are not as accurate or precise (due to languages, accents and fellow immigrant recorders from many countries) as the records in Europe?
I recognize that the European records were normally kept by professionals or trained recorders operating under a unified system. The differences in script also add to the confusion.
My problem is I have not been able to establish a link from the U.S. to Norway and have to sort out the possibilites from the many "corrupted"/changed names that occured after arriving in the U.S. Some of what I have discovered was Ondell being changed to Ollendorf in two years and 100 miles. - Fortunately I found this and verified the documents with help from a fellow researcher. A similar names was changed from Ondell the Omdahl to Omlund and finally Lund.
Any opinions and sources are welcome.
Dick
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hasto
Senior member
Norway
294 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 21:22:18
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I would also like to see if anyone has made a register of how names were changed by Norwegian emigrants. That would be interesting.
I would not use the word corruption, because there was little right and wrong in the spelling of Norwegian names before 1900. The same name might be spelled in many different ways. The pronunsiation was consistant, but the style of spelling was often changed.
Norwegians about 1850 were used to that their name might be spelled in one way by birth, another way by confirmation, and a third way in emigration records. So why should they not use a forth way of spelling when they came to USA.
About 1850 many emigrants chose to spell their name in a way that made the Americans pronounce their name most like the Norwegian pronunsiation. I have seen an emigrant from Støren in Norway use the surname Stern. That is logic, because "stern" in English sounds almost like "støren" in Norwegian.
But I guess an emigrant from Støren about 1880 would spell that name Storen or Stoeren. |
Harald S Storaker
4586 Korshamn, Norge |
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Hopkins
Norway Heritage Veteran
USA
3351 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 23:48:45
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Spellings not standardized. That's ONLY a modern idea.
Personal Favorite Example -- a farm in old Fjelberg/Ølen area (Hordaland/Rogaland border area).
The farm name spelling in 1801 -- Kiellesvig
1865 spelling -- Kjællesvig
1875 spelling -- Kjællesvig
1900 spelling -- Kjellesvik
1950 spelling -- Kjellasvik
In the 1500s-1700s other spellings recorded for that same farm including -- Kialasswiik, Kellevik, Kielsuiig, Kollesuig, Kilisvigen, Killisvig.
Persons from that farm who emigrated to the US found to have settled on surnames Chelsvig AND some used Chelsvik but various spellings found especially in the earliest years after immigration.
Off topic: Family celebration tonight! Niece has safely arrived here after hurricane evacuation from Galveston, Texas! |
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Kåarto
Norway Heritage Veteran
Norway
5861 Posts |
Posted - 13/09/2008 : 01:12:13
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I made a copy of some pages about naming practise for emigrants in USA from the Bygdebok for Land in Oppland county some years ago. here are some names from there including some from other parish´s
Most common was to keep the patronymic name and Americanize it like:
Andersen bacame Anderson, Johnsen/Johannesen to Johnson, Nilsen to Nelson, Gulbrandsen to Gilbertson, Torgersen to Thomson etc. or to keep first letter in the Norwegian name.
Other kept the farm name and Americanized it.
Frøisli bacame Fresly, Løvmoen to Lommen, Strøm to Strom, Rønningen to Renning, Skiager to Shager, Lier/Lien to Lee, Kverum to Quarum, Grinvolden to Greenwold, Vassenden to Wassen, Ruud to Rood/Rude, Skolmen to Scolman, Sveen to Swain, Viken to Wicken etc, and others as Hjartsjø to Jarshaw, Aasen/Åsen to Ousen, Arkoset to Arkasa, Mørk to Mork, Lien to Lein.
Name of farms which dont exist in Norway today still exist in USA as family names.
Firts names.
Since the letters Æ-Ø-Å dont exist in the English alphabet and Americans had problems to read and write the the Norwegian names or even someimes to understand if it was a male or famale name, but often first letter was kept.
Lars became Lewis, Anders to Andrew, Nicolai to Nic, Hans/Halvor to Henry, Christian/Kristian/Kristoffer to Chris, Mattias to Matthew/Matt, Mikkel to Mike, Niels/Nils to Nels, Berte to Betty, Kari to Karen, Marit to Mary, Agnete to Agnes, Caroline to Carrie etc.
In Norway the custom was to name the firstborn after the grandparents, but since the children got English names they kept the practice by keeping the firts letter in the grandparents name.
Others changed to English names, brothers could use dif. last name, one kept the patronymic, another the farm name and a third one changed to a English name, so because of that relationships can be dificult to find out today.
The most comon name in Norway was OLE, coming from Olav.
I have seen it in Norwegian as:
Anlaf, Anlafr, Olafr, Olav,Olaf, Oluf, Ole, Ola.
Even today most authors use the local dialects for naming in a "Bygdebok" and it can be different from what it´s written in the church books like Ole became Olav.
It can be confusing for an outsider if you dont are awear of that.
Kåre
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Edited by - Kåarto on 13/09/2008 17:18:30 |
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Corrupted names
