Working With Surname Variations

[This post was created as part of the 24th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy]

Despite enduring two years of German while working on my bachelor's degree (can you tell I hated it?), I still have trouble with certain words specifically surnames.  When I am doing research, I will often focus only on what I am certain is the form of a surname and not consider any other options.  This is sort of like working with blinders on but I've found a free software application that can help me out of my comfort zone.

Surname Suggestion List is an application developed by Matthew Combs which takes a surname and creates several levels of variations of that name.

As explained by Matthew, the variations in the Excellent column are very similar to the surname used in the search. The Close variations are only similar and the Longshot variations are "somewhat" similar.

There is no way I would think of variations on Henneberg like Hernberg or Heinberg without this application. And while I am a huge fan of web-based applications and tend to shy away from anything I have to download, Surname Suggestion List is one of those "must have" tools for my genealogy toolbox.

Besides generating variations, Matt has also programmed in the ability to click on a surname variation and then perform a Google search with that data. You can also specify Book Search, Image Search and Blog Search.

Worried that Surname Suggestion List won't cover the foreign names you are looking for? Don't worry. From the version list provided, Matt has included the following surnames besides those commonly found in the United States and the United Kingdom: Armenian, Belgian, Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Irish, Kurdish, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Pakistani, Persian, Polish, Scottish, Spanish, and Swiss. And Matt also updates the program to include surnames suggested by users.

Check out Surname Suggestion List and you'll be surprised at where your research takes you. As they say, "variety is the spice of life" and of surnames in genealogy research.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

High-Ya! Kicking Down That Brick Wall

Photo: Richard Henneberg and Frances Pressner, abt. 1911, Bronx, New York. Digital photograph. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Chicago, Illinois, 2009.

[This post was composed for the 22nd Edition of The Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy hosted at Al's Polish- American Genealogy Research blog]

Last month I posted about how after many years I was able to break through my Pressner brick wall and I wanted to bring my readers up to date on some more breakthroughs involving my Pressner and Henneberg lines.

Anna May Henneberg (1912 - 1965) was my maternal grandmother who lived in the Bronx, New York and died in 1965 - thus I don't have many memories of her or her family. Anna Henneberg's parents were Richard Henneberg (1988 - 1941) and Frances Pressner (1889 - 1960) and for years I was unable to identify the parents of Frances.

I've been working with my 2nd cousin Wendy who I met on Facebook and we've been sharing Henneberg and Pressner data for months now. We also both have our family trees posted on Ancestry so we can keep tabs on each other's progress.

Wendy also is the one who has been handling requests with the New York City office of Vital Records to obtain death and marriage certificates. She and I have been using Stephen P. Morse's One Step website to identify the exact certificate numbers and then she takes care of placing the order. And then the waiting and waiting takes place.

Remember what it was like to get something fun in the mailbox? Well Wendy knows that and the anticipation involved - she says it is exciting and she can't wait to see which mysteries will be solved when the certificates arrive.

Well Wendy hit the jackpot last week. The marriage certificate arrived for Richard Henneberg and Frances Pressner which revealed the name of Frances' parents (Robert Pressner and Anna Herring) as well as confirming the maiden name of Richard' mother (Zwicker). Also key were the names of the witnesses - Adam and Julia Beyerman. Subsequent census searching revealed that Julia was in fact Julia Pressner and the sister of Frances Pressner.

And if that were not enough, further research of census and immigration records has brought us the name of Robert Pressner's parents (Johann Pressner and Franciska ______ from Austria) as well as Anna Herring's parents (Albert Herring and Emily _____).

By getting copies of the marriage certificate and then supplementing it with further research, my cousin and I could add two more generations to our family tree. As a side benefit, I've gotten Wendy interested enough in genealogy (and she is so good at the research) that she thinks genealogy might be a new profession for her!

Leaving no stone unturned, getting out and doing non-Internet based genealogy research, and being persistant is the key to breaking through those brick walls!

Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy, 21st Edition

Welcome to the 21st edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy! I am hosting this edition here at Destination: Austin Family with the theme being:


Summer! How did your ancestors celebrate the glorious season of summer both back home in Europe and here in America? Did they need to make adjustments once here in America since the weather was different? Or summer customs were different? Include memories, photos, recipes – anything that helps tell summertime stories.


The first submission is from Jessica Oswalt of Jessica's Genejournal with My German Ancestors and Their Summertime Experiences. As she tries to compares summers in the Great Lakes region to those of her ancestors in Germany, Jessica concludes that overall the summers were probably very similar.


Here at Destination: Austin Family, I've contributed Summertime for My German Ancestors. My Henneberg and Pressner ancestors arrived from Germany in the late 1860s and 1870s when New York City and more specifically, the Bronx, were likely less crowded and less humid than today.


A small edition this time but lots of fun and informative still! The 22nd edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy will be hosted by Al Wierzba of Al's Polish Genealogy Research Blog. The theme is roadblocks and breakthroughs encountered during your genealogy research. All carnival submissions should be sent to Al at alwierz@gmail.com no later than Saturday, August 8th, 2009.

Frances Pressner - My German-American Great Grandmother

[This post is part of the 17th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy hosted at CanadaGenealogy, or, 'Jane's Your Aunt']
Frances Pressner is one of my great-grandparents (she is the mother of Anna Henneberg who was my mother's mother) and married Richard Henneberg on April 16, 1911 in the Bronx, New York. Richard had arrived in the United States on April 25, 1891 at age 11 months along with his mother Lena Henneberg and older brother Walter, age 3.


On the 1930 US Federal Census, Frances Pressner is listed as having been naturalized in 1892 and her birth is estimated as 1889. So I assume that she arrived here in the United States around the same time as her husband, approximately 1890-1891.


Frances Pressner and her husband raised a family of five children in the Bronx, and at one point lived not far from Yankee Stadium. She died on March 10, 1960 and is buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in White Plains, New York, along with her husband.