Hello Max Burgdorf and others interested in the Burgdorf spelling problem:
The origin of this family name is the place name of Burgdorf. There are two of them in Niedersachsen. One north-east of Hannover near Uetze, the other one sout-east, roughly between Hildesheim and Salzgitter.
Max' family must have lived in one of the two places, then went to live in another place where they were called "from Burgdorf". Eventually Burgdorf became their family name.
Burchtorf is a dialectal deformation of Burgdorf (composed of Burg and Dorf). The g at the end of a syllable is usually pronounced like the ch in "ich", Burg sounds like Burch and is written as heard. T for d in Dorf is a common mis-spelling in past centuries when spelling was more a private than an official affair.
Does this help?
Regards
Colette (Llorca)
www.llorca.ovh.org
Hi Colette
Yes, your post does help, it helps to puzzle me more. I was informed early on in my search that Burchtorf was low-German but was not to be confused with social, educational or other reasons. It referred more to a dialect spoken in south Germany. As a non-expert I accept both spellings in my research as I do double f's, Burgtorf until proven I am on the wrong track. The handwritten spelling on the birth certificate of Julius Wilhelm's son is Burgdorff.
Colette, do you live in Germany? Your email address of orange@fr is new to me.
After years of search using the most obvious clues, I am taking a look at the non obvious. A search done for me by a professional researcher turned up an illiegetimate child born to a Dorothee Burgdorf and named Friedrich Wilhelm Burgdorf. The birth year corresponds to Julius's age at death. This event is recorded at St. Andreas and the maternity hospital was in Semmen. But I think Semmen is Kemme, just a short distance from Hildesheim.
Thanks for your imput, Max
---- colette <colette.llorca@orange.fr> wrote:
Hi Max,
I think the domain is from France.
Don Roddy
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