Hello! I'm continuing to write shorter posts on different ancestors each week following Amy Johnson Crow's genealogy challenge. (www.amyjohnsoncrow.com). This is week 7!
Week 7: Outcast
I couldn't think of a particular ancestor who was cast out of their community. What did come to mind are two ancestors who changed their surnames because of possible stigma associated with the meaning of name, combined with a move into a new life. I figure broadly speaking they were trying to avoid being an "outcast" simply because of their names.
Posladek to Nalepka
My maternal 2nd-great grandmother, Margaret Posladek, went by other surnames after immigrating to the United States. Her Polish maiden surname, Posladek, translates to approximately "buttock." Perhaps she figured it was better to tell others that her maiden name was something else. It appears she used the name Nalepka, which is a relatively common surname from the region of Poland where Margaret was born, and I believe she had relatives and neighbors with that surname. I also saw "Liptak" as a surname for Margaret once.
Schwanz to Wirth
On my paternal German side, family lore had indicated a surname change had occurred, but it wasn't clear exactly at which generation.
Through a lot of research, a little luck, and some gracious translation by a volunteer of a difficult-to-decipher cursive passage, I discovered that my paternal 2nd-great grandfather, Friedrich Christian Schwanz, legally changed his (and his family's) surname to that of his wife's maiden name (Wirth) in 1905 when my great-grandfather Friedrich Whilhelm Wirth was about 7 years old.
In German, "Schwanz" means "tail" and is often used as a crude term for a part of the male reproductive anatomy. At that time, Friedrich Christian was a sergeant/soldier in Weisbaden; he had been born in the small town of Phillipstein in the county of Oberlahn. I don't know very much about the intervening years, but by 1924 at least, the family had moved to the big city of Frankfurt am Main for professional work and college, and Friedrich Christian eventually retired from public service as an "upper state secretary (Oberstaatssekretär)."
Birth register from German state archives, with detailed note
authorizing family surname change in the left margin. 1898 & 1905.
The name change was noted and officially authorized in the margin of Friedrich Wilhelm Wirth's birth register, and it allowed me to continue to trace this family back in time by proving the connection. Many thanks to a kind volunteer from one of my genenalogy groups on Facebook for translating the lengthy note for me.
Thanks again for joining me here! I hope to write more about my German relatives in the future.
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