What's In A Name?

There is a Chinese Proverb that states:The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
But what if you can't find the "right" name?

Searching for our ancestors can be quite daunting. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to sort through various spelling variations to find your family members. My maiden name is Schralla but that is not the surname of my 2x Great-Grandfather. His last name, according to the church records from Germany states his last name as Schütte, known as Schrell. On the passenger list from Bremen to New York in 1860 it appears as Schrill. In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census for Quincy, Adams Count, Illinois it appears as Schriller and in the 1880 census it’s Schreller. It’s not until the 1900’s that it finally morphs into Schralla.

So when it came to do researching my Mother’s side of the family with the name Sauerborn, I was prepared to do some digging. Surprisingly in the New York passenger list of 1856, the name is Sauerborn as it is in the church records from Germany. But in the 1860 U.S. Census it is clearly written as Sawborn but in Ancestry.com the name is listed a Swborn. Then in the New York State Census for 1865 it’s written as Souerbourn In 1870 U.S. Federal Census it has the wonderful spelling of Sarbarn but once again Ancestry has it indexed as Sarbam. Searching the 1875 New York census I find the name as Sowborn but again Ancestry has it indexed as Lowborn. And finally, in the U.S. Federal Census for 1880 the matriarch is living with her daughter and the name is Sauerborn.

William Shakespeare once said, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Our family is our family regardless of how the name is spelled. It sure would be nice, however, when records are being indexed that the person doing so had good eyesight; and can read and write English. Because how can we gain wisdom if we don't know what the right name is?