[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] surname metrics and name changes

[Jerry Frank]

At 07:28 AM 07/04/2004 -0500, gary and rhonda simpson wrote:

>The name I am researching was Litz from the L~omza region.  The lady who
>wrote me indicated that her maiden name was Lic and in her metrics Lietz.
>I do not know what this means? Could anyone offer any clues on this?Now, for
>another question, I have seen names that have been changed in my
>own family with Germanic background that came from Russian Poland, then
>moved to Volhynia .  My Krvning, became Kroening, then Kroning, then Krening
>and ended up Kraning. Is there some rule as to what vowel is dropped in a
>name?  I remember from my brief stint in German school that two vowels
>together took the sound of the 2nd vowel, so would the first be dropped?
>(i.e. Leitz to Litz?)

<SNIP>

>Look forward to any comments on the Lic/Leitz/Litz controversy.
>..As a postscript, I received the following responses on the Poland site:
>,,Hi Rhonda - congratulations on your success!  Lic/Litz/Lietz are all
>different spellings for the same name, Lic being Polish and the other
>two being German.  By "metrics" she means birth/marriage/death
>records, which are called metrical records. Apparently her name shows
>in the records with the German spelling.
>and this one;
>German vowels altered with the umlaut (marked with two dots over) are
>usually represented adding an E when you can't type or print the sign. So
>there is no difference between Krvning and Kroening.
>Kroning, Krening and Kraning are wrong variants.


The answers you received are quite correct.  The c at the end of a Polish 
word has a tz sound so Shulc = Schultz, Hinc = Hintz and Lic = Litz.

The only rule for the vowel change is also correctly stated and is 
universally recognized even in Germany.  I don't think that Kroning, etc. 
are necessarily *wrong* variants.  They are simply variants that some 
families chose to use and which we, as researchers, must be aware of.

There is one other pronunciation "rule" to consider.  In English, we always 
say, "i before e except after c except for numerous exceptions.".  In 
German, ie is always pronounced with a long e (Lietz = L-ee-tz) while ei is 
always pronounced with a long i (Leitz = L-eye-tz).  Of course correct 
pronunciation doesn't mean that you still might not have both variants when 
attempts are made to Anglicize the name.

By the way, our mailing list system does not recognize unlauts so Krvning = 
Kroning where the o has an umlaut.



Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca