Oh Just Pick A Name Already!

If you have an opinion on this, I would greatly appreciate hearing what it is!!!

I have this one family line, the "Domelle" line, and they emigrated to the US from what was the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.

Where they came from is now within the borders of modern-day Romanian.

But the Domelle's are actually German.

Apparently there was a big movement of Germans into Hungary during the 18th century. Much of the land was uninhabited and the Habsburg rulers wanted it more populated to help keep the Turks at bay. So they invited a bunch of Germans to move in, and they did. (See the Habsburg Rule section of this.)

An interesting consequence that resulted from these pockets of german-speaking people in Hungary was that towns and counties and such ended up being referred to by two names, the Hungarian and German versions of each name.

Of course, once all the towns became part of Romania later on in the 20th century, then there was a Romanian name for the towns.

So which name am I supposed to use?

The one my ancestor used on whatever document I'm looking at? What if they switched back and forth depending on their mood? Do I use the modern day name?

For instance, my great-aunt Anna Magdalena Domelle who emigrated to the US in 1919 lists (on her Social Security Application form) that her birthplace was:

Gatga, Tenesmege, Hungaria.

Actually, someone else typed it for her, she just signed it. Which is why that is a horrible mis-spelling.

The town is actually "Gattaja". In German.

In Hungarian, it's "Gátalja".

In Romanian, it's "Gătaia".

(Oh, and thank you german version of Wikipedia for being much more clear on Gattaja than the english version! Now I have to remember to check other languages of Wikipedia to help me along as well!)

I do know that the entire family (according to my grandfather and all the census records) spoke German.

But sometimes, they gave the Hungarian name for things, as in when my great-grandfather William Domelle said he was born in Nagyosz, which is actually Treibswetter in German, and Tomnatic in Romanian.

What do I do??? Naturally in my notes I capture all this information, but in my family tree software, in the main display for each person, which version do I use?

Right now I am using whatever they used the most in their documents. But I would prefer to have a consistent way of capturing it.

Any thoughts from anyone?

Scanning for Posterity is WORK

So I finally began to scan old pictures that I have, and by old I mean pre-digital. I kept putting if off because I wanted to do it RIGHT, and I'm nothing if not a procrastinating perfectionist (thanks SO much Dad [for the perfectionist part, not the procrastinating part, that's all me]).

So I picked up a pile of pics that my Aunt Becky took on a trip to the finger lakes region back in 1995. We took my grandmother up there and took pictures of all the houses she lived in as a child, her first apartment with my grandfather, stuff like that. I have my own set of pics somewhere, these just happened to be nearby. My grandmother did not live in an insignificant number of houses. She grew up during the depression and they rented and moved constantly from place to place, probably wherever there was work for her father. She refers to the different houses by the name of the landlord, so for instance, in 1929, they lived in "the Tucker house".

So, 70 pictures.

Scanned at 600 dpi, saved in TIF format.

Final folder size is 2.84 GB.

So I guess I'll be buying an external drive sooner rather than later, huh?

Plus, it took HOURS and HOURS of time, because not only could I scan them, but I had to put a bit of white at the bottom of each picture and label it. So now, when I win the lottery and head off to live in BoraBora, someone can come behind me and actually know what each picture is.

I have to admit, it sorta felt like work a little bit, but I kept telling myself it was for a Good Cause and Future Generations of Genealogists.

Probably it would have been faster if I didn't have the tv on, for instance, now I have Body Double on and I keep getting distracted. It was on On Demand and I was curious, Melanie Griffith is so YOUNG, I wonder if this was her first film? I'm not the biggest Brian DePalma fan, I like Carrie, but that's probably it.

Sorry, see, I got distracted. So there's my first scanning project, complete.

And here's a few pics for your viewing pleasure:

"And none will hear the postman's knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?"

Well, actually, my postman doesn't knock. But he does make fun of me for how many packages I receive. I've tried telling him that I feel it is my duty to keep the economy going, but I don't think he's buying that.

So last week right before I went on my little trip to Washington DC I finally got some social security apps that I had requested. I sent my request in JANUARY! And got them mid-MAY! It's sort of a weird little anomaly - I can get my great-grandfather's death certificate in a couple days, but the social security app takes months.

What's up with that Social Security Administration? Are you so under-funded that you are still working with copiers and typewriters? Are you really that busy looking up genealogist's requests? If it's as busy as the library at the National Archives this last saturday, I would think that you would have time to figure out the cure to cancer while simultaneously coming up with time travel for the masses (sans butterfly effect of course) and a pill to make me thin, blond, tan and young (with the only side effects being the sudden ability do math in my head and riverdance. at the same time). Anyway, if you let me know how I can help, I'll be so happy to do it.

Meanwhile, how exciting, I got some info for my Domelle side of the family that has been difficult to research. And how geeky am I that I now can link "Domelle" to my own little surname page??? :-D

Here's who I got:

Alvin Robert Bozung - he's the son of my great-great-Aunt Lena Domelle Bozung. They lived in Ionia County, Michigan. He was only 18 when he did his application (1943) and was listed as "Unemployed". In my other records, he's listed as a WWII veteran, so I have the feeling he went off to war soon after this was filled out.

Martin Domele - He's the son of my great-grandfather's cousin John. They didn't have the extra "L" in Domelle. Who knows why, but it's very consistent in the records. He worked for the Appleton Electric Company in Chicago Illinois. He filled his application out in 1936, which is a good thing, because sadly, just 3 years later he died of a Ketroperitoneal Sarcoma.

Anthony John Domelle - This guy is my mystery Domelle. I have a great-Uncle Tony, who is also named Anthony John, but he was born in 1913, and this guy is born in 1899. But it is just too much of a coincidence, he is clearly related to my family, there just aren't extra Domelle's running around. Plus, his address is in Illinois, and all my Domelle's started out in the Illinois/Indiana/Michigan area. My great-great-grandfather is Adam Domelle, so maybe this Anthony John is the son of Adam's brother or something like that? We'll just have to see.


Mary Ann Domelle - She is my great-Aunt. Never married and apparently very artistic. Her application is signed: "Miss Mary Domelle". I had never had a middle name for her before, so I was happy to see the "Ann". I think it may have actually have been "Anna" for her Aunt Anna Domelle Tischler, but that's nit-picking. In 1937, the year of her application, she was working at "Montgomery Ward & Co." at 618 W. Chicago Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. She was only 21 and living in the big city, I wonder if she was living with relatives, or alone? She was born in Indiana where her father and uncles had moved (from Chicago) to do farming.

Elizabeth Domelle - Only daughter of my great-great-uncle Nick Domelle and his second wife, Barbara Traum. She was working at Fuhrman & Forster Co. in Chicago, also living in Chicago. The year of her application is 1936, she was only 19 years old.

In case you were wondering, Fuhrman & Forster was a meatpacking plant. I hope Elizabeth worked in the office and not the factory floor!


Anna Domelle Tischler - They typed it as "Domlle" on her application. Twice. But here's the cool thing. She is my great-grandfather's sister. She came over unmarried through Ellis Island. I always knew that my great-great-grandfather was named Adam Domelle, she even listed her dad as her closest relative back home on the ship's passenger list. But I've had a lot more trouble with Anna's mom. My grandfather said his grandmother's name was "Christine Rizer". I found one record (my grandfather's uncle Nick) where she was listed as "Kristina Reiser". But now, I have Anna's social security application and she lists her mom as "Christina Risa". One important note, this app was typed, so it was an SS worker typing out what Anna said. But now I know I have something to work with - the Risa, Rizer, Reiser name. And it looks pretty certain that her name was Christina. yay!

Ferdinand Adam Tischler - This is my great-great-Aunt Anna Domelle Tischler's son. He has helped me greatly by listing a middle name for his mom Anna, which I had not seen before. He lists her as "Anna Magdaline Domelle". Magdalena was a very popular name in the region they came from, so it makes sense. Ferdinand lived in Michigan and worked at the Belding Foundry. On this app, his middle name is spelled "Adom", but since his grandfather's name was Adam, I'm making a bet it was supposed to be the same.

Here's a picture of the main street of Belding, Ionia County, Michigan in the 1940s:


And finally,

John Peter Tischler - Son of Anna Domelle Tischler, older brother to Ferdinand. He was also working in the Belding Foundry in Michigan. His application listed his mom's middle name as "Madeline", so it was fully anglicized by then.

Yay, lots of information! I'll be filling in my software as well as updating the Domelle wiki pages.

I Came, I Saw, I Wiki'd

I was lured into joining Twitter not long ago because I didn't want to be left out. But I still maintain my rebel status because I refuse to follow Oprah or Aston Kutcher. I don't do too much on there, mainly I follow genealogists, a couple of twittering cats, and some pseudo-Christopher Walkens (I like to think my tastes are eclectic, which is a much nicer word than inconsistent or weird).

Whilst reading my tweets one day, I came across a genealogy wiki different from the one that I entered myself into before, this one you could create pages for each of your family members. I was intrigued and intimidated at the same time.

After registering, and with encouragement from the gentleman in charge of it, I dove in and started to create some pages for my Domelle line. I have to admit, I was scared! I don't know why, it's not like any mistakes I made couldn't be fixed and the world wasn't going to come to an end if I did something wrong. I know, I am a little uptight, I like things to be Right and Correct and if you aren't going to do it Properly, then don't bother doing it At All. The best part was that when I would go in the next day, magic elves (aka, Robin) would have fixed my grossest errors and explained to me how to do it right the next time. What a great guy!

And so, I debut for you, my in-progess collection of wiki pages on my Domelle family:

Domelle surname page

My great-great-grandfather: Adam Domelle
My great-grandfather: William Domelle
My great-great uncle: Nickolaus Domelle
My great-great aunt: Anna Domelle
My great-great aunt: Lena Domelle
My 1st cousin 3x removed: John Domele
My 2nd cousin 2x removed: Anthony Domele
My 2nd cousin 2x removed: Martin Domele

There is lots more to do, more info to fill out, more citations for information, but I think it's turning out pretty cool. And it gets the info out there in a way that others may understand better, rather than looking at my genealogy reports.

And I encourage others to try it out! I am a pseudo-technical person, I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but when it comes down to it, I don't actually know much at all about the guts behind things (like html, xml, shtml, abcdml, blahblahblahyoupeoplearemakingthisupml) on the web. But it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be once I dove in. I now know the power of these thingies: <> and these thingies: [].

The most amazing part though, is that it's actually helped me at work! Who knew? Suddenly I realized that I could actually contribute to our internal wiki because I actually knew how it worked now. I was in there today, creating new pages and linking and feeling awfully productive and contributory.


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