NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN-L Archives

From: Ruth Kittner <>
Subject: [NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN] VOEGDING or OEPKE
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 10:37:23 -0500
References: <200103121501.f2CF1Db07146@lists5.rootsweb.com>

VOEGDING or OEPKE -- could it be von Oepke, nor "or" ? Like Joe Smith from
Copenhagen? To distinguish him from Joe Smith from Dusseldorf? Usually these names
were eventually consolidated so that the name of the village became the last name,
as in Joe Copenhagen, instead of Joe Smith from Copenhagen, and Joe Dusseldorf.
People were named after villages, not the other
way around.
Also, when women remarried upon deaths of husbands, even boys could acquire another
name, and then revert to their natural (lineage) father's name when they came "of
age." Thus they would be know throughout their boyhood by the stepfather's last
name, making it easier to track children within the village at the time (where they
went to school, who paid their fees, who was responsible for them, who signed
contracts for them, etc.), but when they came of age and presumably into any
inheritance they went back to their lineage name.

Ruth


> .
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Subject: [NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN] HELD, OEPKE, VOEGDING, KELLERMEIER -
> > Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 15:43:58 -0800 (PST)
> > From: Mary Henderson <>
> > To:
> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > Billy Held asked me to look up some records for his
> > HELD line. It seems to tie into my OEPKE line in some
> > weird way, so I'm copying this to the list in case
> > someone can help me sort it out.
> >
> > Billy, I just started looking at the film today and am
> > just getting acclimated to how to read the film - I
> > don't read German - so I haven't gotten very far.
> > However, I did look at the marriage record of Carl
> > Wilhelm HELD and Anne Marie Louise KELLERMEIER
> > 3-21-1801. It looks like his father was Heinrich
> > Herman HELD. Carl Wilhelm HELD was 19 years old at
> > the time of the marriage and was born 4-1782. Anne
> > KELLERMEIER was 20 years old and born 1781 - Nov. I
> > think. They lived at Langenhagen C. Nr 33 M (or
> > something like that).
> >
> > Now, here's what's weird. There's a marriage record
> > for Carl Wilhelm VOEGDING and Marie Cathrine
> > SCHAEFFERLIPS 2-6-1802. He's shown as being "Carl
> > Wilhelm VOEGDING or OEPKE" and is born 10-25-1778.
> > It's the OEPKE line I'm tracing. I don't understand
> > why he has two last names - i.e. why he's shown as
> > being "VOEGDING or OEPKE".
> >
> > But now back to the HELD name. The LDS website shows
> > a record of a Heinrich Philip HELD being born
> > 2-13-1802 to Carl Wilhelm VOEGDING and Anne Marie
> > Louise KELLERMEIER. How does the child get the name
> > HELD if the father is VOEGDING? Then there's also a
> > record of a Casper HELD being born to Carl Wilhelm
> > VOEGDING and Marie HOMBURG in 1842. Mayby Anne
> > KELLERMEIER died and Carl VOEGDING remarried (or maybe
> > it's not the same Carl VOEGDING), but again why does
> > the son have the HELD surname?
> >
> > Then in the LDS Ancestral Files there's a Carl Wilhelm
> > VOEGDING with a father of Johann HELD and mother of
> > Anna TIES.
> >
> > I'd love to figure out what's going on here. How does
> > the surname flip-flop between OEKPE, HELD and
> > VOEGDING? Seems very strange to me.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > Mary
> >
> > ______________________________
> >
> >.

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• [NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN] VOEGDING or OEPKE by Ruth Kittner <>