The Confusing Maze of Genealogy Mixups in Names

Several years ago I spotted this Q & A online and I tucked it away thinking one day I wanted to write about names and the perils of genealogy research if you are not open minded enough ....

Question: What do Sean Gough, Jean Lefevre, Giovanni Ferrari, Juan Herrero, Ivan Kowalski, Hans Schmidt, Jan Kowalski and Janos Kovacs have in common?

 Answer: In Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, respectively, all are John Smith.


What a great reinforcer of the idea that as genealogists we need to look beyond what we are familiar with. We need to think outside the box. Coming from a North American culture we might assume if we find an ancestor named Janos Kovacs that it's an unusual name. Not so!

What about spelling? How often have you found a name in a census or other genealogy record, that was close but not exactly the name you were looking for? Don't discard it! Look at other clues - spouse, children, ages, occupation, location - could it be your ancestor? Remember spelling didn't "count". Census takers and other clerks wrote what they heard (phonetically). Accents confused the ears.

My own ancestor's surname was Vollick. Sometimes it was rendered as Follick. Other variations I have found in documents are Valck, Volk, Valic, Falic, Folic. Why "V" and "F" interchangeably? Because the Dutch-German "V" can sound like "F" to English speaker's ears.

My immigrant ancestor's 'real' name was Van Valkenburg! How would I ever have found my ancestor if I hadn't kept an open mind and looked at other clues? And much to my initial surprise, Van Valkenburg is not an unusual name.

Another true example from my own ancestry - when Leonard-Tremi Le Roy left Quebec for New York, his name was misinterpreted by Dutch recorders as "Jonar" and then "Jonas". His surname Le Roy (pronounced Le Raw) was misinterpreted as Larrowa which evolved into Larroway.

So be aware that bad handwriting, inability to spell, accents, and other events can change an ancestor's name - and don't be so quick to assume, for example, that Leonard-Tremi Le Roy is not your 5x great grandfather Jonas Larroway. If both men have the same wives and children, same birth year, same place of birth, and name siblings who are identical, you can be pretty sure that you've just stumbled into the confusing maze of names in genealogy research.

But I KNOW My Great Grandma's Name! So Why Am I Stuck?

Many of us know our great grandparents' names. One of my great grandmothers was a Vollick. I knew that, and I had proof (baptism, marriage, census records)which I had found over 30 years ago.

As I traced her lineage back, I found the trail stopped cold at *her* great grandfather, Isaac Vollick the Loyalist. I could not find him in New York before he arrived in the Niagara area of Ontario with Butler's Rangers. I hunted in every resource I knew of, to no avail. There simply were NO Vollicks running around south of the border in pre-Revolutionary times!

And then I stumbled on a very generous lady who steered me in the right direction with a casual remark "Did you know that your Loyalist ancestor Isaac Vollick used to be called Isaac Van Valkenburg?"

Huh? How the heck did one go from being a Van Valkenburg to a Vollick??!!! But she was absolutely correct in her statement. The reason I could not find any Vollicks running around south of the border was because it was not a "real" surname! My Loyalist ancestor simply adopted it. I think he adopted it as a nickname "Valk" (Dutch for falcon) from Van Valkenburg (meaning town of the falcon in Dutch) which may be what his comrades in arms called him. And it stuck. It became an established surname and there are thousands and thousands of Vollick descendants running around in America and Canada today.

There are also Follick descendants - because some of Isaac's sons and grandsons became known as Follick and that surname also stuck. I believe this alteration was due to the German/Dutch sounding "f" for "v". So instead of hearing Vollick, an English speaking/writing clerk no doubt heard Follick. And thus another surname was born!

That experience taught me to open my eyes to the possibility that a surname as we know may have changed greatly over the centuries. It may have been changed deliberately as in the case of my Isaac Vollick, or it may have been changed through mis-communication or mis-hearing.

As a side-note, since my discovery 30 years ago that my Vollick ancestor was really a Van Valkenburg I have researched the family in detail and have now published three books on Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick, the Loyaist, and his two sons Cornelius and Storm.  

• From Van Valkenburg to Vollick: V1 The Loyalist Isaac Van Valkenburg aka Vollick and his Vollick & Follick Children
• From Van Valkenburg to Vollick V2 Cornelius Vollick and his Follick and Vollick Descendants to 3 Generations 
• From Van Valkenburg to Vollick V3 Storm Follick and his Follick and Vollick Descendants to 3 Generations

The above books are available at New Netherland Books

Another example is my French LeRoy ancestor (prounced sort of like Le Wah in French - it's difficult to render it in text) settled in what is now Quebec in the mid 1600s. When he moved to New York, his name started being recorded as Larua, then Larraway. No doubt English speaking clerks mis-heard his name when he pronounced it! And so it began to be recorded as Larroway.

You must have an open mind when researching ancestors. You don't know if they changed their names. It may have changed due to mis-recording based on language differences. Did they change it to escape a bad situation? Did they change it simply due to having an established nickname that took hold? Whatever the reasons, if you are truly stuck on an ancestor, think about possible name changes. You may need to develop an entirely new area of thinking and researching!

April Articles on Legacy Family Tree

If you missed these, here are my April articles I wrote for Legacy Family Tree.

Was Great-Grandpa’s Name Changed at Elllis Island?

Break Down Those Brick Walls

Was Great Grandpa's Name Changed at Ellis Island?

 "My great-grandpa's name was changed at Ellis Island!" How often have we genealogists heard this statement? But do you realize that is not true? There is not one shred of evidence to support the claim that officials changed names when an immigrant arrived at Ellis Island. 

Officials not only did not have the time to start assigning new names to incoming passengers, they also did not have the authority to do so.  Check how many ships were arriving daily and how many passengers on average were on each one... then think about the lineups of immigrants waiting to be cleared. Think about the math - the sheer numbers of immigrants arriving during certain years. There was not time for officials to do more than process each immigrant as quickly as possible.

Sometimes immigrants used incorrect names such as the surname of a stepfather rather than the biological father, or a name the family had adopted for other reasons. Sometimes it was deliberate and an immigrant arrived under the name of someone else. Those arrival names were often changed by the immigrants themselves later in life.

One of the most common reason that your ancestor's name on the manifest does not match the surname your father and grandfather have used, is that it was a name unfamiliar to English speaking clerks, and was entered phonetically in other documents, such as census records.

Sometimes an immigrant chose to "Americanize" their surname themselves and simply began using their new name a year or so after settling in America.

When an immigrant's new name no longer matched that shown on their official immigration record such as a ship's passenger list, he or she might face difficulties voting, in legal proceedings, or naturalization. Below are some sample letters representing typical cases of immigrants who made their own decisions to change their surnames.

How Diamond became Cohen…  
How Kohnovalsky became Cohn…  
How Bahash became Amber…  
How Shukowsky became Zakotsky…  
How Asszony became Miazaroz…
 
 An excellent article on this topic called "American Names / Declaring Independence" can be found at Immigrant Name Changes

Blended Families, Blended Names - Good or Bad Idea?

Blended Families, Blended Names is the most disturbing trend I've heard of recently. According to the article online, some married couples are inventing a new surname for themselves and by extension their children. The new surname is a combination of the husband and wife's surnames.

This isn't a case of hyphenated surnames. Two of my own grandchildren have a hyphenated name from their mom and dad as their moniker. But that makes it easier for genealogists! Having an ancestor named Smith-McConnell gives an instant surname to the wife and as we all know, often it is the women who are the most challenging to find.

No, this is a case of taking husband and wife named Smith and McConnell and creating a new name such as McSmith. The new name is used by the couple and by their children.

The article cites examples of real couples, for example the husband and wife team of Fitzpatrick and Sawatzky. They now carry the new surname of Fitzky

All I could think when I read this was how difficult they are making life for their descendants who might be interested in genealogy. But I also confess I had a little bit of sadness thinking how that name change dishonoured their ancestors.

In my own genealogical research it was only through sheer luck that I stumbled on the fact  that my Vollick ancestor who I could not find prior to 1786 was in fact born a Van Valkenburg. Sometime during or after the American Revolution his surname became Vollick. His sons used both Vollick and Follick. I would not deliberately wish that challenge on anyone!

What do you think of this trend?

Oh Those Dit Names!

1670 Baptism. Translation of underlined portion
“Jean, fils de Simeon le Roy dit Ody”
Jean, son of Simeon LeRoy dit Ody”
Image Source: Ancestry.com.
Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968

A reader on my Olive Genealogy Facebook Fan Page reminded me of the problems genealogists can encounter searching French ancestors who may have used dit names.

A dit name is an alias given to a family. A dit name doesn't just apply to one person, but to many members and generations of a family.

A dit name might be derived from any of the following:

* A nickname
* A location of origin
* Land owned
* Name used in Army
* Various other reasons

I have an ancestor who settled in New France (present day Quebec) in the 1660s. His name was Simeon LeRoi. His dit name was Audy. So in the records we might find him as

* Simeon LeRoi dit Audy
* Simeon LeRoi
* Simeon Audy
* Simeon Audy dit LeRoi

The LeRoi/LeRoy surname underwent great changes, becoming LeRoy dit Audy or Ody, Audy and Ody in New France (Quebec), and Laraway (with variant spellings) or LeRoy in the United States and Canada.

Some of Simeon's sons assumed the Audy dit name as a surname and there are Audy descendants today who are from Simeon LeRoi.

At least one of his sons (my ancestor) assumed the Larroway surname when English speaking clerks in New York began recording the French Le Roi as LeRoy and eventually Larroway

Some descendants use the LeRoy surname.

It's a challenge to trace backwards but researchers need to stick to it and keep those name variations in mind (dit names, accidental name changes, deliberate name changes, spelling variations, phonetic misinterpretations, etc.

So keep searching and don't give up if you are faced with a challenging ancestor. Check to see if he may have been from New France at one time. Perhaps a dit name enters into your challenge.

But I KNOW My Great Grandma's Name! So Why Am I Stuck?

Many of us know our great grandparents' names. One of my great grandmothers was a Vollick. I knew that, and I had proof (baptism, marriage, census records)

As I traced her lineage back, I found the trail stopped cold at *her* great grandfather, Isaac Vollick the Loyalist. I could not find him in New York before he arrived in the Niagara area of Ontario with Butler's Rangers. I hunted in every resource I knew of, to no avail. There simply were NO Vollicks running around south of the border in pre-Revolutionary times!

And then I stumbled on a very generous lady who steered me in the right direction with a casual remark "Oh did you know that your Loyalist ancestor Isaac Vollick used to be called Isaac Van Valkenburg?"

Huh? How the heck did one go from being a Van Valkenburg to a Vollick??!!! But she was absolutely correct in her statement. The reason I could not find any Vollicks running around south of the border was because it was not a "real" surname! My Loyalist ancestor simply adopted it. I think he adopted it as a nickname "Valk" (Dutch for falcon) from Van Valkenburg (meaning town of the falcon in Dutch) which may be what his comrades in arms called him. And it stuck. It became an established surname and there are thousands and thousands of Vollick descendants running around in America and Canada today.

There are also Follick descendants - because some of Isaac's sons and grandsons became known as Follick and that surname also stuck. I believe this alteration was due to the German/Dutch sounding "f" for "v". So instead of hearing Vollick, an English speaking/writing clerk no doubt heard Follick. And thus another surname was born!

That experience taught me to open my eyes to the possibility that a surname as we know may have changed greatly over the centuries. It may have been changed deliberately as in the case of my Isaac Vollick, or it may have been changed through mis-communication or mis-hearing.

For example my French LeRoy ancestor (prounced sort of like Le Wah in French - it's difficult to render it in text) settled in what is now Quebec in the mid 1600s. When he moved to New York, his name started being recorded as Larua, then Larraway. No doubt English speaking clerks mis-heard his name when he pronounced it! And so it began to be recorded as Larroway.

You must have an open mind when researching ancestors. You don't know if they changed their names. It may have changed due to mis-recording based on language differences. Did they change it to escape a bad situation? Did they change it simply due to having an established nickname that took hold? Whatever the reasons, if you are truly stuck on an ancestor, think about possible name changes. You may need to develop an entirely new area of thinking and researching!

What's In a Name?

Years ago, I hit the proverbial brick wall when searching my great grandmother Mary Elizabeth (Vollick) Peer's ancestor trail. We had no family lore to follow as clues, and no one had any knowledge of the family.

Through census records as well as birth and marriage certificates I was able to trace the line back to a Loyalist named Isaac Vollick. Isaac fought with Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution. After the Revolution ended, he and his family settled in the Niagara area of Upper Canada (now Ontario Canada). But there the trial ended. This was back in the days when the Internet was in its infancy, and thus no online searching was available.

Visits to Archives, Libraries and ordering in dozens of microfilms yielded one small clue - that Isaac had come from Albany New York. But try as I might, I could find *no* evidence of any family with the surname Vollick in New York before the 1780s which was the time period I was interested in.

In my research in Ontario records I had found the surname VOLLICK recorded in a variety of ways - including Follick, Voleck, Valk, Valc, Valic, and Volleck

I therefore knew to be creative in my hunting in New York records but I hit a dead end. Seeking help, I began writing queries and mailing them to various Ontario Genealogy Newsletters. And then one day, success! Another researcher wrote to me informing me that the Vollick surname was originally Van Valkenburg. She gave me sources and directed me to a 2-volume set of books published on the family.

That contact was my jumping off point and from there I was able to trace Isaac Vollick's family line back to the 1600s. I did not rely blindly on the published books on the family, but used them as clues, double checking every "fact" presented before accepting it.

And so my long search for my Vollick ancestry led me down a very different path than what I had anticipated - to the Dutch Van Valkenburg family. I did gather many facts and stories about Isaac the Loyalist and have written about that briefly on From Van Valkenburg to Vollick & Follick: Isaac Van Valkenburg, aka Vollick & Follick, the Loyalist

I also learned that besides being very creative with spelling of a surname, genealogy researchers also must keep an open mind to the possibility that names change over time. They can change slightly or drastically! We must be aware of the possibility of such a change, whether it was a matter of a non-English name being converted to English (such as my French Le Roi/Roy family changing to Larroway once they settled in New York) or for other reasons. Don't assume that the surname you are tracing was always what you think it was!

Ancestor Name Changes

I still remember the frustration I felt many years ago trying to find the origins and ancestry of my Loyalist ancestor Isaac Vollick.

I had diligently followed all the standard genealogy research procedures. I had traced backwards (with much trial and tribulation but that's another story) along my father's lines until I reached Isaac, a Loyalist with Butler's Rangers.

I had census records, land records, Upper Canada land petitions and other documented facts. I knew Isaac had been a private in Butler's Rangers 1777-1782. With much slogging through various microfilm I had found records of his enlistment years. The Loyalist and early Ontario records are sparse so it was a challenging process but over the course of 3 years I learned quite a bit about Isaac.

He settled in the Niagara area of Upper Canada (Ontario) with his wife Mary and at least 10 children. His petitions for land grants as a Loyalist contained much detail. Mary's husband, Isaac, was imprisoned three times by the Americans for his loyalty to the British King. After Isaac joined Butler's Rangers and fled to Canada, Mary was left with ten children, six of them small.

Mary continued to aid the British, and in 1779 she and the children were taken from their home at North River, by American patriots. Their home was burned, Mary and the children were marched 80 miles north through the forest and left in destitute circumstances. Mary and family made their way to Canada and reached Montreal by July of 1779. They received food rations, lodging and blankets until 1782 when they settled in the Niagara area as impoverished Loyalists.

All of this wonderful information was important as I then knew that Isaac and family had lived in New York. But I could not find any evidence of anyone with the surname Vollick in New York before or during the American Revolution!

I knew that one of Isaac's sons used the surname Follick but that was just a slightly different spelling, the phonetic representation of the name Vollick. I knew there were alternate spellings - Volk, Vollic, Valick etc. But still no luck finding Isaac or even any evidence of his last name.

Then one tiny clue jumped out - on the pay list of Captain William Caldwell's Company of Butler's Rangers 24 Dec. 1777 to 24 Oct. 1778 I found a listing for Isaac Volkenburg But no Isaac Volkenburg was found on the roster of Captain Caldwell's company, only Isaac Vollick. It suddenly occured to me that Volkenburg could be abbreviated to Volk (which was one of the alternate spellings for Isaac Vollick's surname that I had found)

Then serendipity lent a hand. This was back in the days before the Internet made our genealogy lives so much easier and faster, and I had been sending in queries to various genealogical publications in hopes of connecting with someone else searching the same family. Bingo! A letter from a woman in the Niagara Falls area changed everything.

She explained that my Isaac Vollick had in fact been born in Schoharie New York as the illegitimate son of Isaac Van Valkenburg and Maria Bradt. The Van Valkenbug family was a well researched Dutch line who had settled in New Amsterdam (New York City) and Albany area in the early 1600s. Apparently my Isaac had shortened his name while in Butler's Rangers to Valk which became recorded as Vollick and other spellings.

Further research confirmed this story and his baptismal record was soon found. Sponsors at Isaac's 1732 baptism in the High and Low Dutch Church in Schoharie were Isaac and Lydia Falkenburg [sic. should be Van Valkenburg] his paternal grandparents.

These two seemingly small acts (finding the pay list for a man with a similar name to Isaac Vollick the Loyalist, and connnecting with another researcher) proved to be huge, as confirming that Vollick had been Van Valkenburg led me down many other research paths and finding my ancestors back several more generations to the early 1600s. It also led to the discovery that I had a Mohawk ancestor and of course that led to even more exciting genealogy finds, as well as writing a book called The Van Slyke Family in America.....

So if you have a brick wall ancestor my advice is to think outside the box and don't dismiss the possibility that the surname you are looking for might have been something entirely different!