Marsha,
You ask lots of good questions, and I'm looking forward to seeing the
answers to them.
One of them, though, I can actually reply to.
Does anyone know why B�hne might have been changed to BANEY by
1869?
BANEY is a close approximation to the German pronunciation of B�hne.
English speakers don't do well at making the umlaut vowel sounds. 
Mona
Mona_Houser@juno.com
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~monajo/