by Charlotte N. Champenois, AG®
Poring through church records in Alsace-Lorraine, looking for your ancestor Wilhelm, you may be frustrated when you can’t find him in the year your research indicated he was born. Or perhaps you can’t find your ancestor Hedwig in Pommern, even though you were certain you knew exactly when and where she married! The surnames of her and her husband look correct, too, but the bride is listed as Jadwiga. Surely it’s the wrong person.
What’s going on?
This is a case of translated given names.
A resource every German genealogist researching in multilingual areas should bookmark is Słownik imion [Dictionary of Given Names].[1]
[1] Wanda Janowowa, ed., Słownik imion (Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Wrocław, 1975). Additional editions exist from 1991 and 2008, but the 1975 edition is available online.
Słownik Imion [Dictionary of Given Names]
You are likely already familiar with the idea of immigrants’ names often becoming anglicized, changing from names like Margaretha to Margaret, Georg to George, and Bärbel to Barbara. You are likely also familiar with the concept of spelling variations (for a refresher, see the previous blog article Think Like a German: Spelling Variations in Genealogy Documents).
The book Słownik imion makes it possible to look up the equivalents of given names in many languages. The book is viewable online at www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/103656 (microfilm 1181578, Item 2), starting on image 473 and ending on image 640. The multilingual given name index begins on image 575, and the language key (written in Polish; use an online translation tool to see which language is which number code) is found on image 640.
To determine the equivalents of a given name in another language:
- If the given name you have is not in Polish, look it up in the index in the second half of the book. (If the name you have is in Polish, skip this step.)
- The Polish equivalent is listed after “p.” [“see”] next to the name in the index.
- If only the Polish equivalent is needed, this is the last step. If you want to know the given name in other languages, keep going.
- A later blog post will list additional resources to refer to if the given name of interest is not listed in the Słownik imion.
- Browse the first half of the book for the Polish name (the bolded Polish names are alphabetized and bolded) to see the name equivalents in several other languages. Decipher each name entry as follows:
- bolded name (not numbered) at the beginning of each entry = Polish name
- łac. (“łacinski,” meaning “Latin,” written next to the Polish name) = Latin name
- 1 = English name
- 7 = French name
- 12 = German name (for additional language codes, see image 640)
- = male name
- = female name
If an entry just lists a name followed by “p.” [“see”] and a name equivalent, the first name is found under the entry for the second/Polish name equivalent.
Here’s a lookup example:
- Browse the index for “Georg.”
- Since the name “Georg” is not Polish, the index lists the Polish equivalent, like this: “Georg, p. Jerzy”—that is, “[for] Georg, see [the Polish name] Jerzy.”
- Look up “Jerzy” in the main body of the book. The bolded Polish name “Jerzy” is listed on image 526 (page 90).
- Polish name (bolded): Jerzy
- Latin name (by “łac.,” right next to the bolded Polish name): Georgius
- French equivalent (#7): Georges
- German equivalent (#12): Georg, Jörgen, Jörg (male), and Georgia (female)
Remember Wilhelm from Alsace-Lorraine, who didn’t show up in the expected birth/baptism record?
Following the same steps as above, we find that there is no Wilhelm listed in the index. There are two possible explanations: Either (1) Wilhelm is simply not in the book, and we need to find it in a different resource, or (2) Wilhelm is also a Polish name. It turns out Wilhelm is a Polish name, as evidenced by several similar names—Wilhelmina, Wilhelmus, Will, etc.—being listed with “p. Wilhelm”—that is, see [the Polish name] Wilhelm.”
Browsing the first half of the book for “Wilhelm” (since we now know that’s also the Polish name), we find that the French equivalent is Guillaume.
We would want to take another look at the record we anticipated finding Wilhelm in, keeping these name equivalents in mind—especially the French given name equivalent, Guillaume, if the Alsace-Lorraine record is in French.
If the record is in Latin (as is often the case with Catholic records), we would want to keep an eye out for the Latin name equivalents
Photo by Doug Kelley on Unsplash
What about Hedwig—remember her?
Let’s look up her name and see whether her living in Pommern might have meant the Polish equivalent of her name was recorded—since the eastern part of Pommern belongs to modern-day Poland—rather than the German name Hedwig.
- Browse the index (second half of the book) for “Hedwig.”
- On image 602 (page 242), the first column includes this listing: “Hedwig, p. Jadwiga”—that is, “[for] Hedwig, see [the Polish name] Jadwiga.”
Since we only wanted to know the Polish equivalent of Hedwig, we don’t need to look up the full entry in the book. We now know that Jadwiga is Hedwig and can comfortably continue our research, considering places, dates, relationships, and names (including their equivalents in other languages) in the context of our prior research as usual.
Rountzenheim-Auenheim town hall, by Gerd Eichmann, via Wikimedia Commons; Rountzenheim and Auenheim were merged into a single commune in 2019
But hold on a moment. If neither the Polish, French, German, Latin, etc., name is wrong—as long as it’s a translated equivalent of the person’s name—then how do we know which one’s most right?
In the images below, snippets from the top and bottom of a marriage record and the relevant index in Alsace (a region that alternated between German and French rule) are shown. Note the following:
- Groom: The scribe recorded the groom’s name as “Florent Wolff” in the column, main body (third line in the first snippet), and index, but the groom himself signed his name at the bottom as “Florenz Wolf.”
- Bride: The scribe recorded the bride’s name as “Madeleine Wolff” in the column, main body (last line in the first snippet), and index, but the bride herself signed her name at the bottom as “Magdalena Wolf.”
Auenheim, Bas-Rhin, Alsace, civil marriage and index, 1858
Consider that (1) the record is written in French, (2) the scribe wrote the groom and bride’s names in French, and (3) the groom and bride wrote their own names in German.
The language the scribe wrote a record in depends on the official language of the records at the time. When an index was created later, the names may be listed in one language in the index and in another language in the main record.
We must assume that the signatures, since they are written by the couple’s own hands,* reflect what the bride and groom called themselves (as an aside, their signatures here being the German versions of these names may also be an indication that they were German speakers).
As such, their names would be recorded as Florent and Magdalena in our family trees. But we would also list Florent and Madeleine as variations of their names to remind yourself (and let others know) that these are name variants you may find them listed by in various records throughout their lives.
*Always check whether the handwriting of signatures varies from the handwriting in the rest of the record. Sometimes scribes—in duplicate registers, or if someone was illiterate—would write the names themselves rather than having the individuals sign them with their own hand. In those cases, we cannot assume anything based on the signature.
Conclusion: If you’re researching family lines in areas like Alsace-Lorraine or Poland, where genealogical records have been written in various languages throughout history due to changing borders and annexations, start your research with Słownik Imion. Arm yourself with equivalents of your family’s given names in all languages you can expect to see records in those areas in, and then keep a sharp eye out for all versions of the names.
Good luck with your further research in multilingual areas!
2 Responses
very useful
Thank you for the pertinent information.