HUNGARY-L Archives

Archiver > HUNGARY > 1997-12 > 0882628652


From: "Felix G. Game" <>
Subject: [HUNGARY-L] Re: HUNGARY-D Digest V97 #96
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 14:37:32 GMT


>Subject: [HUNGARY-L] Hungarian maiden names

>I was researching microfilm of Catholic church records from the 1700's
>when I noticed that occasionally the maiden names of the women had an
>"in" added to them. I would assume that meant that they were married.
>My question is did they do a similar thing later on (1900) by adding a
>"dorfer" to maiden names. I had a family picture taken in the early
>1900's and an old woman from the village told me that the maiden name of
>the woman in the picture was Wolker. In the civil records it looks as
>if it was written as Wolkersdoffer. Thanks to everyone for your help
>and have a very merry Christmas! ----------------------Janice

In both cases you are looking at German names (many colonists in Hungary
came from German-speaking territories). The "-in" ending was customary at
one time to denote a female member of the family. Mr. Huber's daughter was
Huberin, as was his wife. "Dorfer" on the other hand is a solid part of the
family name. Wolkersdorffer is a family name, another family may be called
Wolkersgruber, or Wolkersberger. Careful with the spelling! You may come
across a Wolkersdorfer with one "f" - do not assume that to be a variant and
the same family.

<felix>

------------------------------------------------------------------
>In the spirit of the season - can we all cooperate ??

The season has nothing to do with the topic of a learning curve.

>but the point is, us newbies don't know *anything*. It would be nice if
>when someone posts mentioning such search sources that they tell us how they
>found the source in the first place! Maybe someone else has

It would take an entire book to teach the basics of genealogical
research. There are many such books on the library shelves and each person
who is a self-professed newbie has an obligation to seek knowledge from the
books, not from other researchers who have had to invest their time and
effort in the same learning curve. It may be a little inconvenient to
actually make one's way to a library, just as it is inconvenient to go the
FHC to look at films, just as it is a real pain to go for the groceries. But
it has to be done, and newbies should not expect to have knowledge or
answers handed to them. Once a person has researched diligently and then
gets stuck, that is the time to ask for help by listing the things and
places already tried. Help will be gladly given once it is obvious that the
asker has really tried to find the answer.

<felix>

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