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Archiver > Dutch-Colonies > 2000-04 > 0954601353


From: "Roland Elliott" <>
Subject: Re: Changing Surnames
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 07:02:33 -0800
References: <000501bf9be3$e372db60$8c1b4f0c@robert>


Speaking of surnames,for years I followed Michael Harness-Elizabeth Westfall
in VA.Then I found his name was Michael Ernst and hers Elizabeth Deffenbaug
in Berks County PA ,then other docs,showed him calling himself as Johann
Michael Ernst,Hawthorne etc.When he was really Johann Michael Hoerner.I
guess speech impediments,and worm temperature IQ's run in the family---did
he not know some fool,5 grits grandson would be looking for him????R
----- Original Message -----
From: "R L Van Valer (Van)" <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 6 06 AM
Subject: Changing Surnames


> Hi everyone
>
> With a little effort and much appreciation for a lot of hard work done
> previously by others, I have recently pieced together the record of
> my Van Valer ancestors back to New Amsterdam and Europe. In
> the course of doing this, I found that five generations back in the
> US the name was Verveelen. I also see several other instances in
> other branches of the family where the name was changed at about
> the same time to other forms such as Vervalen, Ver Valen, Van
> Valen, etc.
>
> I can perceive possible semantic elements in some aspects of the
> transformations, e.g., the use in Dutch of "ee" to represent a hard
> "a," the substitution of Van for Ver to represent "of" or "from," etc.
> And, the changing of names appears too frequent and consistent
> to be capricious or the result of misspellings or misinterpretations
> of pronunciation or handwriting.
>
> Were these kinds of changes in surnames common in other early
> Dutch-American families? Was it a practice earlier in Holland as
> well? Or, an effort in this country to "Anglocise" the names? Can
> anyone provide a more complete linguistic or cultural explanation?
> I'm a bit mystified and would be grateful...
>
> Van
>
> Lake Shawnee, NJ
>
>
>
>
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>
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>

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