Those forgotten other names
She was married 109 years ago today, in the City of Chicago, Cook, County, Illinois.
Hattie Geisler — oldest sister of The Legal Genealogist‘s grandfather Hugo Ernst Geissler — was married on this date 109 years ago.
The marriage was before the Honorable Joseph Arne, Justice of the Peace of Cook County. Her groom: Paul Knop.1
There’s no doubt of the name on the marriage certificate. You can click on the image and see it larger. Hattie Geisler marrying Paul Knop.
And therein lies the tale.
Because every other record I could find for Hattie told me the same thing.
Her name was Hattie Geisler Knop.
So says the 1910 U.S. census of Chicago: Hattie was recorded as Hattie Knop, age 27, born in Germany of German parents, living with Paul and their then-one-year-old son Irving.2
So says the 1930 U.S. census of Chicago: Hattie was recorded as Hattie Knop, age 48, born in Germany of German parents, living with Paul and their then-21-year-old son Irving.3
So says the 1940 U.S. census of Chicago: she was recorded there too as Hattie Knop, age 59, born in Germany of German parents, living with Paul.4 Son Irving and his new wife were living next door.5
So says each of the family death notices in the Chicago Tribune: when Paul died in 1945, his widow was identified as Hattie;6; when Irving died in 1961, his mother was identified as Hattie;7 when Hattie herself died in 1966, her own death notice identified her as Hattie E. Knop.8
So why, I kept asking myself, couldn’t I find her immigration record? Her entry into the United States?
There was just one hitch.
One thing I kept forgetting.
That minor little issue in German families — something known as call names. Something that’s simply a fact of life for anyone with German ancestry.9
The minor little issue that what someone is called isn’t necessary what that person’s name was.
Oh, Hattie is for sure what she was called. And what she called herself here in the United States.
But when she was born in the village of Bad Köstritz in what is now the German State of Thüringen and was then the tiny principality of Reuss jüngerer Linie,10 her name wasn’t Hattie.
The name she was born with, baptized with — her legal name as it was given — was Emma Hedwig.11
Not Hattie.
Hedwig.
Which is how her immigration record really is recorded.
Call names.
For those of us with German ancestry, something not to be forgotten.
And something I was reminded of, on this anniversary of Hattie’s marriage to her beloved Paul.
SOURCES
- Cook County, Illinois, Marriage License and Return No. 447077, Paul Knop-Hattie Geisler, 28 Nov 1906. She used the Geisler spelling instead of the Geissler spelling my grandfather preferred. ↩
- 1910 U.S. census, Cook County, IL, Chicago Ward 31, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 1358, p. 269(B) (stamped), dwelling 106, family 148, Hattie Knop; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2011); citing National Archive microfilm publication T624, roll 277. ↩
- 1930 U.S. census, Cook County, IL, Chicago 15th Precinct, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 16-2542, p. 25(A) (stamped), dwelling 217, family 284, Hattie Knop; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 Oct 2011); citing National Archive microfilm publication T626, roll 439. ↩
- 1940 U.S. census, Cook County, Illinois, Chicago 16th Ward, population schedule, enumeration district (ED) 103-1109, sheet 9B, household 199, Hattie Knop; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Nov 2015); citing National Archive microfilm publication T627, roll 954. ↩
- Ibid., household 201. ↩
- Chicago Tribune, death notice, Paul Knop, 11 Nov 1945. ↩
- Chicago Tribune, death notice, Irving L. Knop, 15 June 1961. ↩
- Chicago Tribune, death notice, Hattie E. Knop, 26 Sep 1966. ↩
- See Anne S. Riepe, “German Naming Customs,” Riepe Roots (http://www.rieperoots.com/ : accessed 27 Nov 2015). ↩
- See Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.com), “Principality of Reuss-Gera,” rev. 9 Oct 2015. ↩
- Kirchenbuch Bad Köstritz, Taufregister Seite 23 Nr. 52 aus 1881, Baptismal Record of Emma Hedwig Geissler (digital image of record in possession of JG Russell). ↩
Does that mean you were able to find Hedwig’s (AKA Hattie) immigration record?
Yes. She came in as a little girl through Baltimore.
Reading Source 9, German Naming Customs, Rieppe, Anna S., it appears call names were derived from the person’s second given name. Is Hattie a common “nick” or Anglicized name for Hedwig?
In general, the call name was the second given name, Brian. In this particular case, I was dealing with both what is strictly a call name (Hedwig, and not Emma, her first given name) and what can be more properly denominated a nickname or Anglicization (Hattie, and not Hedwig).
My 2x Great-Grandfather’s baptismal record from Germany records (1825) states his name as:
Johann Christian August Schutte known as Schrell.
His mother’s last name was Schutte his supposed father was Christian Shrell…they were not married. He immigrated under the names of Schrell.
Illegitimacy is a fact of life in early German records: between the costs of getting married and the formal permissions required, there were a LOT of babies born before their parents married. The children were legitimated if their parents married and, as you see in your record, were often known by the father’s name if the father was identified.
I’ve just been going over the German half of my tree and you are so right. There is family after family with Johann something boys all except for one Friedrich Wilhelm after the King of Prussia. And Johanne something girls. But then there are the variations. On the male side was Johann Christian, who was known as Hans – both in the homeland and here. On the girls’ side are a few Anna Dorothea entries who may perhaps be Johanne Dorothea. One male just for variety was Christian Johann in that order, although until I always check the reverse order as well. And just once in a blue moon is a complete nickname, that would usually only be known to family, that becomes used by general society and creeps into newspaper reports but so far not into official documents.
The only way to cover both sides is to talk to family and obtain oral history, and maybe copies of some family letters and family bible entries. The other sort of name that sometimes turns up are the pet names close family sometimes had for each other, and that can bring an understanding of family intimacy.
Not just a German thing. My great-uncle Morris was known as “Michael” or “Mike” and was listed as such in the Linden, NJ city directory. His wife Sylvia was known to our family as “hoshana” or “Shannie.”
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=56790305
Too true, Ken — lots of examples in Jewish families and eastern European families as well.
Make that “Shoshana.” Sticky keyboard!
Thanks for your informative, useful post.
My immigrant German ancestor is Hans Wagner, who was known to have been in North Carolina by 1761, where he had a son named Isaac. Isaac shows up in records as both Wagner and Waggoner, but his father’s always Wagner. Can I find any immigration record or passenger lists for Hans? No. Maybe one reason is that Hans Wagner is like “Joe Smith.” Probably more important is that Hans may be his call name, and I’ve got no idea what was his “first” name. So what name should I be looking for on a passenger list? Some researchers think they know what ship’s the right one, but the Hans Wagner on that list has the first name of Hans with a different middle name. I’ve also learned this Hans’ line “daughtered out” well before 1761.
And, of course, considering the time frame, there (a) won’t be any immigration record at all (no such thing in the 1700s) and (b) may not be any surviving passenger list. Sigh.
I am researching an early German family with 15 kids: 8 Johanns and 7 Marias. The ONLY way to tell them apart is by call name. There is even a Johann Johann!
Johann Johann! I love it!!! (And I thought my family was bad!)
I am reading through vital records of our Bukovina German Lutheran ancestors from the early 1800s. These are church records required by the Austrian empire. If I understand you correctly, only the given name would be listed on these records, since that is the legal name “given” at birth. The “called” name would be an informal everyday name, not listed on the legal records. Correct?
This is one of those “it depends” situations, Larry. Many church records do list multiple given names, for example, Marie Margarethe Schmidt or Johann Gustav Schmidt. In those cases, the call names could well be Margarethe and Gustav. Where only one given name is recorded, however, it’s very likely there’s a second informal unrecorded name.
I had a relatively easy time of it, aside from two different ways the family spelled “Schaefer.” My great grandfather from Waldeck (primarily Lutheran) consistently used his first name of Carl in both countries. Same with his betrothed who followed him, even though Caroline had three additional middle names! One of Carl’s male cousins went by his second name (anglicized from Ludwig to Louis) as you indicated was common. However, his other cousin also went by his first name. If not for a German cousin who helped tremendously, I might still be trying to sort them out in the village lineage books. The cousin was able to also tell me that my Carl”s middle initials of “F. L.” stood for “Friedrich Ludwig.” All their first and middle names were used n so many permutations in that area of Germany it could drive one crazy!
>> drive one crazy!
Tell me about it… sigh…