[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Surname spelling changes

[Otto]

This appears to be running all over the board regarding desired
spelling of surnames by individuals bearing the name and in doing so
losing the content of my original reply.

Note, my original E-letter (Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Jesswein
or Gesswein) stated:
"I've encountered character substitution quite a few times in the
encoding of German vocal sound into Russian vocal sound by the scribes
of the time. The writers were attempting to communicate. . ."

I am referring to transcription of German church records into Russian
Cyrillic
for the civil authorities ce. 1868....
characters may vary but the writer succeeds in keeping the sound
similar.
I speak only from my experience gained gleaning documents from the
microfilm rolls of the Mormons.
Hence the U.S. uses the Soundex Sysytem, lumping together sound a-likes
and leaving it up to the individual to sort out the ones that belong to
them.

I have many relatives that left Europe spelling their surname one way
and Ellis Island spelling it another way.
I wish Ellis would have got it right at least once.
(This is not the time and place for empirical evidence to substantiate
my statement)
Most relatives continued spelling their surname as in Europe once
safely at their destination.
Many Americanized their surnames.
But then again... this has little to do with transcription into Russian
Cyrillic.


...  Otto

                     " The Zen moment..." wk. of July 13, 2003-
                       ________________________________
                           "Reality. . . A personal approximation"