Hello Ursula, Pam and list,
Ursula wrote:
What has me puzzled is, how did the scribe come up with J H for Carl
Heinrich Wilcke's first name?
In this particular case there might be an easy explanation: the man
couldn't read old German script.
The old capital letter C looks very much like the L, minus the loop at
the top which is replaced by a kind of "streamer".
The errors in other peoples' names may often be explained by the fact
that scribes mentally pronounced the names as native English speakers
would pronounce them - and consequently altered the spelling. Another
fact is that, in these times, most of the people themselves had no idea
about the correct spelling of their names: first because most of them
couldn't read nor write (or sometimes only scribble their name), second
that the spelling was very often different even in the same document!
Regards
Colette (Llorca)
www.llorca.ovh.org
Hello Colette,
I disagree on all points. To say that the old German capital letter C looks
like the L doesn't hold water, especially since the scribe of the NY PL
wrote the 'C' identical to the German 'C' on the Hamburg list, besides, he
didn't write L.H. but rather J.H..
And to say that most German immigrants didn't know how to spell their own
names is also a myth and easily disproved by their signatures left on
church records.
You are confusing the information given by the immigrant to the officials
upon arrival with the documentation provided to the customs office, which
was prepared ahead of their arrival. Dead people do not speak, therefore,
they wouldn't have been recorded at all.
Oh well, I guess we'll never be able to determine why the American scribe
did what he did and which document he used to create the NY passenger list.
Ursula
colette wrote:
Freundliche Grüsse,
Immer schwierige Aufgabe zu decifer Hand Skript Datensätze. Jede Hand ist einzigartig.
Manchmal sehr schwer zu decifer meine eigene Hand Skript.
Um meine Augen .....
Es gibt viele Male Ich weiß nicht, was ich lesen:)
Hier sind Links:
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/RG/guide/German_Gothic99-36316.ASP#printed_gothic
http://www.e-welt.net/bfds_2003/veroeff/Tabelle.gif
Warm Regards,
Barbie-Lew