AH, TRACING THOSE NAME CHANGES
Brenda Kellow
October 21, 2012
Did your ancestor change his or her name? Some of my ancestors did exactly that. I know the reason most changed their name.
When Benois du Brasseur, the Huguenot, left France for religious freedom in America, he wanted to meld into the population and he did so by Anglicizing his name, changing it to Bennett Brashier. The same was true of the Huguenots Guillume de Tonnelier, Nicolas Monet and William Hardouin. Tonnelier changed to Tunnell, Monet to Money, sometimes Moni, and Hardouin changed his family’s name to Hardin.
Joseph Stalin changed his name to one that would not identify that he was Georgian and not Russian. He was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili. Therefore, to be more acceptable to the Russian Bolshevik Party, he chose the surname Stalin because he thought it sounded Russian. The Stalin surname translates to Man of Steel. The name change did make his surname more pronounceable.
Coming into recent times, when Jay Mohr married actress Nikki Cox he legally changed his name to include hers. He became Jay Cox Mohr. I do not understand why he chose to put her name in front of his surname, but the other way would have sounded rather funny.
Changing surnames falls under legislative and case law, depends on the period and the state. If legal documents cannot be found, look for clues in newspapers and compiled family histories. There is a difference between a name change and changing a spelling. The surname Moskevicz was somtimes changed to Moss. A friend of mine changed her given name from Adrian to Adrianne. The latter does not become a legal matter.
FREE FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CONFERENCE: The Plano Family History Center, 2700 Roundrock Trail, again hosts the free annual Great Family Search conference on November 3, beginning at 9:00 a.m. You can preregister through October 24, but afterwards you will have to register at the door the morning of the conference. Pre-registrants receive a conference package and may pick it up at the door at 8:30.
The keynote speaker is Jim Greene, Marketing Manager for Family Search. Paul Nauta will address the FamilySearch Tree scheduled for released before next spring. Some of the other presenters are Michael Wright, Kay Harrell, Jeanette Hurst, Ron Jackson, Fred and Lynell Moss. For more information and to download the registration form, you can go to the Great Family Search website, www.greatfamilysearch.com.
ANCESTRY.COM TIP: Are you struggling with a topic? Don’t know how to begin? You can download free guides for researching many subjects by clicking “Learning Center” at the top right of their website, www.ancestry.com. I suggest making a notebook with tabs for each subject for filing these guides. You can save them on your computer, too. Sometimes it is much easier to just reach for the notebook with the spine marked boldly, ANCESTRY.COM RESEARCH GUIDES.
FIND BOOKS HERE: When you are searching for a book, search www.Hathiltrust.org. Reader Jerri Decker, in Michigan, was hunting on the internet but was not able to find the book until she found it at Hathiltrust. She said not all the libraries there were upscale like ours. She found Hathiltrust handy because she can search from home. Thanks, Jerri.
PICTURES OF FARGO 100 YEARS AGO: North Dakota State Archives just placed 500,000 photos online. Their dynamic website allows users to “pin” historic photographs onto a Google map with Historypin.com. See: www.historypin.com/channels/view/id/12313037. The North Dakota Archives has two distinct archival collections, the Institute for Regional Studies Archives, which collects, preserves and makes accessible unique and rare historical materials providing resources for the study of the state and region. Check it out at www.library.ndsu.edu/archives/.
Brenda Kellow has a bachelor's degree in history, teaches, and lectures on genealogy. Before retiring to publish her family’s histories in 2007, Brenda held certification as a Certified Genealogist and as a certified Genealogical Instructor. Send reunion announcements, books to review, and genealogy queries to: [email protected].