Is it possible that the last name you think you have for a person is really a truncated version of the actual name? Could the last half of the name have been “cut off” to avoid sounding a little too ethnic? Could your VanDerWalle relative used the last name of Wall(e) instead?
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4 Responses
I knew a guy named Piet. His ancestor had truncated it from Pietrangelo when he came to the U.S.
I knew a family in the late 1950’s who officially changed their name from Cardinelli to Cardinal.
My husband’s ancestors went from Biedefisch to Peterfish to Fish.
One son of Anton and Alvina Kulchinski shortened his name to Kull. But then, Kulchinski may not have been a real name, perhaps made up.