[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Name translations

[Greg Mason]

I have been following this discussion with great interest and I have  
learned a lot from all of your comments and ideas.  Perhaps some of  
you can shed some light on some questions that I have, involving the  
names: Schachtschneider  and/or Schattschneider/Shattschneider  from  
Congress Poland.

My understanding is  that these are different family names, but  
within my wife's family, these names were used interchangeably and  
without much rhyme or reason.  In particular, we have documents from  
church, civil and personal correspondence for her Grandfather that  
show all variations at different times in his life.  (Compounding the  
problem is the fact that after he had been in the US for a few years,  
he changed his name to Sneider and his two brothers changed their  
name to Schneider.)

Do any of you have any ideas or knowledge concerning the origins of  
these surnames and their evolution?  Does translating the name  
between German and Polish have any bearing on the spelling or the  
pronunciation?

Thanks very much for your consideration.  Greg Mason