An obituary indicated that a pallbearer for a relative was Earl Trautvetter. The other pallbearers were individuals whose names I recognized as being nephews or nephews-in-law of the deceased. Then it dawned on me–the obituary was likely referring to my uncle that I always knew as “Babe.” His real name, which I knew but occasionally put in the back of my mind, was actually Carl.
Earl was likely the result of someone misreading the initial “C” in his first name as an “E” or some other sort of typographical error.
An additional difficulty with this error was that the incorrect name was one that I heard differently. It didn’t sound like Carl and so it took me a little bit longer to realize what had likely happened.
Sometimes things are simply mistakes.
It also helped that there was no relative with the first name of Earl during the time period in question.
One response
You can’t trust the names you see in the newspapers! Last names as well as first names may be wrong.