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Archiver > SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN-ROOTS > 2001-04 > 0987619209


From: "Becki Watters" <>
Subject: Re: [S-H-RTS] use of patronyms
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 11:40:09 -0700
References: <5f.136a6b10.280334b3@aol.com> <006a01c0c126$d68a9be0$0201a8c0@we.mediaone.net> <006f01c0c19b$77dc6cc0$0101a8c0@tbird>


Claus, Thanks for your explanation.
Becki
----- Original Message -----
From: "Claus-Dieter Weibert" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 1:51 AM
Subject: Re: [S-H-RTS] use of patronyms


> Becki,
>
> in addition to the other replies: In the duchy og Schleswig the patronym
> surname giving came to an end by decree of the Danish king Christian VII
> dated 8 Nov 1771. He ordered that in future people should get fixed
> surnames, given at baptism and chosen by the parents.
>
> Unfortunately the decree only arranged the names of new born children, not
> those of living people which kept their (patronym) surnames. So it
> lastet some ten years to have fixed surnames all over the inhabitants of
> Schleswig. And in the transitional period there came up a lot of
> diffuculties.
>
> Firstly, there can be different surnames in a family when some children
were
> born before 1771 and got patronym surnames and other children of the same
> family were born after 1771 and got another surname chosen by the
parents.
>
> Secondly, the chosen surname could be quite another than usual in the
> family.
>
> Thirdly, the right to choose the child's surname was given to all
masculine
> inhabitants living at the end of 1771- unless the date they brought a
child
> to baptism in future. So - for example - a 1770 born father could choose
his
> child's surname even in the early 1800s, whereas a 1772 born father had to
> give all his children his own fixed surname. That is the explanation for
> some sudden name switches that can be found even fifty years after the
> decree.
>
> On the other side, when time went on not all priests knew the old
> regulations and recorded as it was usual in present time. For example,
when
> in 1820 a man died and the priest noted the deceased's parents in the
church
> record, sometimes a fixed surname was used. Here again sudden name
> switches can be found.
>
> In my own searches in the Flensburg area I found all these cases in fact.
My
> experience: Familysearch does not become easier by this, but when knowing
> the possibilities it is easier to explain curious findings.
>
> Claus-Dieter Weibert
> Dortmund/Germany
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Becki Watters <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Monday, April 09, 2001 8:56 PM
> Subject: [S-H-RTS] use of patronyms
>
>
> > I know that in Denmark patronyms were common until the mid to late
1800's.
> > Were they also used by the Germans in Schleswig-Holstein? I have family
> > names which appear to have been patronyms: Henningsen, Andresen, from
the
> > Schleswig area and they are purported to be German not Danish. However
> from
> > other areas in Germany the surnames have been the same since at least
the
> > 1600's.
> > Were the patronyms just used in this one area of Germany??
> > Becki
> >
>
>

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