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Archiver > GEN-ROYAL > 2000-08 > 0967653646


From: <>
Subject: Re: genannt
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 12:40:46 EDT


In a message dated Wed, 30 Aug 2000 8:14:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time, G. Steinberg writes:


> 1) Please explain the "gt" below - what does it mean? What would the
> correct surname for this person be?
> "... von und zu Eltz gt Faust von Stromberg "

<<The abbreviation "gt" stands for "genannt," which means roughly "becoming."
When someone named von und zu Eltz is adopted by someone named Faust von
Stromberg, the person's name becomes "von und zu Eltz genannt Faust von
Stromberg." Descendants may retain the whole surname or may simply be
identified as Faust von Stromberg.>>

gt. is indeed genannt, which means "called. This situation occurs in a number of ways, but for the nobility usually (in olden days)when an important estate was acquired (a few generations of my family were "von Bistritz genannt von Studnitz" in the 1500-1600's after they acquired the town of Bistritz in Moravia) or if a family becoming extinct is married into (a la the Beneckendorffs becoming von B. gen. Hindenburg, eventually von B. und H., and generally then just called von H.)

Gilbert v. Studnitz

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