[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Name translations

[PnSWork at aol.com]

Hi Dan,
 
> On re-reading these, a short sentence by Karl Krueger really  piqued
> my interest and many thoughts ran through my head.  He said  "The
> German spelling of her given name would have been Emilie  (pro-
> nounced the same as you would say Emilia)". Wow!

>    In our family we pronounced mother's name as  Albertina, and
> grandmother's name as Amelia. When I obtained a copy of our
> parent's marriage registration, presumably filled out by the  pastor
> of their Lutheran Church, mother's name was written as  Albertine,
> and grandmother's as Emilie. When I told my sister I was  changing
> the names in in our Buss Family book to Albertine and Emilie  she
> was abit miffed, but if thats what it said, so be it. Now it  seems we
> may have had it correct in the first place. Am I right in  thinking that
> German "ine" or "ie" at the end of many given names in  written
> documents is pronounced as "ina" or "ia"?  Similarly  Wilhelmina for
> Wilhelmine, Augustina for Augustine, etc.
 
In German, there is no silent 'e' at the end of a word.  You are  correct
in your assumption that the final syllable of these names would sound
like an 'a' to an English speaker.  Your pronunciation of these  names
was correct through all the years.  It's just your natural inclination  to
anglicize the spelling that led to the incorrect spelling of the  names.
I'm glad to hear that you've corrected it! -)  Take care,
 
    -Paul