[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Bierwagen / Schmidtke

Thu Aug 18 09:31:57 PDT 2011

Hi Charlotte - You are correct that people spelled names any which way they 
 chose (and many still do), but I believe Günther is absolutely correct - 
the  names of Friedrich, Ferdinand and Valentine are three separate names, 
rather  than interchangeable ones. If you say these names are all for the same 
man, then  the only conclusion I see is that he was named all three, rather 
than one  replacing the other.   The German people did not have "given" 
names or  "middle" names as we are accustomed to.    As a generalization,  the 
"first" name, often lost past the christening papers, would be the most  
important, but not what the person was called - that might be one of those 
names  you have, or a Koseform, and might differ according to who is addressing 
him -  family, neighbor, work, local pub, wife.   Günther, correct me if you 
 see that otherwise.   

There simply were no spelling rules until around 1875 when civil  
registrations began in Germany, and those were not necessarily followed  anywhere, 
especially in the USA, until 1910-1920, and could change according to  the 
many local dialects there, plus given the US attitudes toward  Germans, 
penchant for Anglicization, ignorance, errors, deliberate or  accidental, and just 
general evolution.  And someone in a Boston port of  entry might spell and 
pronounce a name differently than at the New Orleans  port of entry.   I have 
dozens and dozens of ways people have spelled  my name, but they are not 
all misspellings.    The use and  disappearance of the umlaut is one reason, 
the inability (or  unwillingness) for tongues to grasp foreign sounds is 
another.    We have trouble with the German dipthongs, for instance; Germans 
have  trouble pronouncing "th".    And the sound of a German  B is very, very 
similar to the sound of a German P.   I have books  which have all the P's 
included with the B's.  And all the T, TH,  DT names may be listed under D - 
because that's pretty much what  they sound like, at least to German ears.  

I have long been fascinated with names, and have a couple dozen books on  
the subject.  The etymologies can be most interesting and  illuminating.

I looked up Bierwagen in Bahlow's Dictionary of German Names (English  
translation) - 

Bierwagen:  surname for a beer dealer, see Beyerkarre (= Bierkarren)  "beer 
wagon" in Hamburg.  
Similar are Krüdewagen and Smerwagen.

Since Hamburg was mentioned there, I looked in the 1826 city director for  
Hamburg, but did not find any Bierwagens there at that time, in Hamburg or  
Altona.  

I looked in several others, but only found one, rather obviously referring  
to it as an "occupation name" as opposed to a "personal characteristic",  
physical or personality, name as mine is (combined with a location name  
signified by the "ke" suffix), or a "location name" alone or "forename" or  
"saint's name" or many others.   

T. Maureen Schoenky - Missouri born, now in California USA 

In a message dated 8/18/2011 8:40:59 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
charlotte.gorley at triangleresources.ca writes:

Thank  you.  Well, it was worth a shot.  :-)  Pardon the  pun.

I've found reference to the same man by all 3 names.  I've  heard that
he/they may have used whichever one they felt like.  Not  sure if that's 
true
or not....which is why I'd really like to find some  lineage records to
establish their parents and other relatives.

I  also know that spelling was changed through the years, and people's
English  sometimes led to translations and  nicknames.

Charlotte

-----Original Message-----
From:  ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org]  On Behalf Of Günther
Böhm
Sent: August-16-11 3:10 PM
To:  ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia]  Bierwagen / Schmidtke

Am 16.08.2011 22:59, schrieb Charlotte  Gorley:
> I've been researching my Bierwagen and Schmidtke  ancestors.
>
> Fredrick (or Ferdinand or Valentyne) Bierwagen  (born 1860) married
Henrietta
> Schmidtke (1861-1948).  They are  my great-grandparents.
>
> I recently found this website, but  can't translate it.  I wonder if
someone
> can help me  out.
>  http://www.ao-rheinhausen.de/3098/jahreshauptversammlung/
>
>  Charlotte

Hello Charlotte,
forget the website. It is the  self-display of an accordion orchestra in
Rheinhausen, a western part of  Duisburg, and the 
mentioned Bierwagen means a beer reefer at the past  advent fair.

By the way, Friedrich [Frederick], Ferdinand and Valentin  are completely
different christian names. Friedrich was the 
name of the  most famous Prussian king, Ferdinand the name of several
Austrian-German  emperors and archdukes and Valentin 
of the name at least three catholic  saints. They have unlikely  been
mixed-up.

Günther
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