Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Plus Side of Census Recording Errors

There have been discussions within our family regarding the correct pronunciation of one of our ancestor’s name:

Ignatz John Kollain
b: 23 JUN 1867 in Isak or Saboch, Austria

Various records of Ignatz and his offspring show many forms of spelling:  Kollain, Kollian, Kollein, Kollien

Fortunately, the 1920 Monroe Township, Middlesex, NJ, census taker did not speak German and simply wrote their name phonetically; and the record confirms the pronunciation of our surname as Coline.


6 comments:

  1. That must explain why one of my husband's lines - D'Arco - comes out as Docco on one of the censuses - New Jersey accent, I guess!

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  2. Excellent use of census information!

    One of my connection surnames - BATTICE - is sometimes spelled - PATTICE. Since his origins are still a 'genealogical mystery', I have sometimes wondered what kind of accent he had.

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  3. There are about 4 different spellings of my Rome line in the censuses (Draughn, Rhone, Roan, Rome). Luckily for me, this is the only line that actually stayed put, at least until mid 1900's. Otherwise, I would have never found them.

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  4. You are lucky - those spelling variations are different enough to give you a few research headaches.

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  5. Ignatz is my great grandfather as well. Do you have a email I can contact you with?

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  6. Leave a 'comment' with your direct email contact, and I will connect with you. (I will not "Post" the comment with your email on the blog.)

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