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Archiver > ILMASON > 2004-06 > 1088262356
From:
Subject: Re: New Havana Website
Date: 26 Jun 2004 09:05:56 -0600
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Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Yg.2ADI/394.1.1.1.2
Message Board Post:
That other surname has me stumped. Meersner seems to be an Americanization of something. Meersen appears to be Dutch. Moersen appears to be Danish. Those three ethnicities did some blending in NW Germany. East Fresia (Oost Friesland) sent a lot of settlers to the Pekin/Peoria Area, and many settled in Eastern Mason County and in Logan County, especially around Hartsburg and Emden. Senator Ev. Dirksen was one of the most famous.
It wasn't uncommon for family names to be spelled many ways. In the St. John's, Topeka, church records, the 19th Century spellings seemed to depend on the pastor. The language spoken in the Arland was very different from High German, and a later pastor came and rewrote family names the way he thought they should have been spelled. Bismark tried to crush the dialects in Germany itself, and had some success. Today they speak a very pure German in much of the former Province of Hannover, because it was learned as a second language.
If you haven't already traced the Meersens to Europe, maybe you can find them in the 1880 Census on Family Search and then run down an obituary or death certificate that will tell you their town of origen. Hopefully Anna had brothers that also came to America. A family bible might also be a possibility.
There were a few exact places of origen in Mason County Lutheran records, but not very often, and I know the oldest St. John's Matanzas records burned. If you haven't already checked, it would also be worth checking her obituary. Mason County newspapers are available on microfilm through public library interlibrary loan.
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