Dear Bonita; Are you sure you have followed the correct information? In my
case the widow married a 2nd husband and he had to change his name to hers.
The information on the internet is incorrect in my case and I can't get it
changed. They tell me that was the custom in the 1800's and early 1900's.
What religion were they? That is your best information. Pat
I obtained this information from a book by Rolf HILLMER (no relation known
as yet) on "Eimke". I don't know what his source was but I assume it was
property records. The book is written in German so I could have missed
quite a bit.
I had heard that when a daughter inherited and the husband changed his name
to match the 'farm' name. I have wondered if she may have been a widow
rather than a wife but what little I can translate from the Rolf HILLMER
book, it appears she inherited from her father. Unfortunately, I can not
find ANY information on her family. It does not seem to be a common name in
the area AND I was unable to locate a marriage record in EIMKE for them.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Bonita
Often the reason the husband changed his surname to
his wife's in Germany is that it saved confusion if he was
to inherit the wife's family farm or business .... which by
custom would continue to be called by her family name.
If he owned it and wanted to pass it to his child, it
was easier for everyone if he had the same surname.
Perhaps it also saved taxes or an auction sale .... that I
do not know.
The name on the land was hardly ever changed, so
when my ancestor Johan Bove moved to a small village
in Germany from Belgium ca. 1700 and purchased a
house that was already built, his address became the
Kratz House.
For years I wondered if he had been adopted or if his mother
had a second husband, as his name on his daughter's
1730 baptismal record was "Johan Bove -- Kratz"
... Oh no, a German told me, Kratz was his address!
And I guess the priest had to add the newcomer's
address to the sacramental record because there was
no obvious house in the village with this own name
where this new father resided and could be located.
When his son Christian inherited that house ca. 1750,
the local people started calling it "the Christian Bove House"
and that is how it was still known until it was demolished
in the 1970s.
I guess they felt safer with the second generation than
with the immigrant!