In the course of centuries the spelling of surnames has varied enormously, and there was no standardized spelling. To allow computers to sort families together a uniform spelling needs to be adopted. In most cases below, the most recent spelling was chosen, in a few others I have arbitrarily determined which spelling should be employed. For this reason my index has been arranged according to this imposed "standard," although the original spelling is also given.
The standard adopted here is of course only valid on my web pages.
The reasons for the different spellings go back generally to the difference between Low and High German. Some pastors "translated" Low German surnames either partially or entirely into High German. For example, "Barkholdt" was turned into "Bergholdt" and "Bergholz", "Steenbuck" to "Steinbuck" and "Steinbock", etc.
To search for a surname, please use the search function of the browser.
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