Hello, here are a few names which could be the names Tina is searching for.
From experience I know that Americans can't say the sch. Schmeckies could
go into Mackees.
Matthewkite is complicated but I know of a very rare name as Matschuleit.
(Matschulat) That name has been changed a few times. I will do a search on
the name since that name is in my family too.
As for Schmeckies, you will find a few in Laibau.
The best is to get the church book from Lauknen and see if you can find the
similar names that would have the sound right for you when you read them as
English. It would help if you can get the original immigration records for
the people. The original spelling would be still in them.
Greetings from Yarker, Ontario
Lena
Re: Matthewkite, Mackees/Machees and Playneap/Plexneas
surnames (Joachim Schikorra)
Who are those US-Americans who cannot pronounce the aquivalent of the German 'sch'-sound (mostly written 'sh' in English) and that you happen to know? Of course, Americans can say this sound because it occurs in a multitude of English words in initial, mid and end positions. Examples: shoe, wishful, finish. Even if you think of the 'sh/sch + m' combination, it is not foreign to speakers of English: the noun schmaltz/shmaltz, and the adjective schmaltzy/shmaltzy are standard English, other terms like 'schmatte', 'schmear', 'schmo' or 'schmooze'--to name just a few-- are colloquialisms. Secondly, it is rather doubtful that immigration records always list the correct foreign spelling of immigrants' names. We have had cases here, in which place and /or family names were misspelled because immigration officers put down what they understood. In other cases, immigrants may have decided later on to change the spelling of their family name according to English pronunciation rules.
You are right though in advising Tina to try and pronounce German last names as found in German records the English way. This is a very helpful idea. One should also try the opposite way:
The English form 'Matthewkite' could represent the German 'Messukeit', since English '-kite' sounds like German '-keit'. Provided people don't speak with a lisp, there is no 'th'-sound in German, therefore the 'tth' stands for German double 's'. As for 'Mackees/Machees', the original form of the name could well be 'Meckies'/Mekies'/'Mackies'/'Makies', as '-ies' is--like '-keit'-- a typical ending of family names in the north-eastern part of East Prussia, where many names were of Lithuanian origin. The same may be true for '*'Playneap/Plexneas'. 'Plexneas' might also be a -'(n)ies' name: 'Plexnies'/'Plecksnies'/'Pleg(g)snies'. By all means, *'Playneap' is misread; it looks as if somebody who was not familiar with German letters mistook the fourth letter for a 'y' and the last letter (probably a German '�' [sounds like '-ss']) for a 'p'. Recently, the British paper 'Daily Telegraph' called the '�' a 'fat B'--very funny indeed.