Is it possible that your immigrant ancestor’s last name was translated before being written in a document or a census record?
While I doubt if my Aunt Wilhelmina Senf is enumerated as Wilhelmina Mustard (I’ve looked), other last names may have been translated into the local language. Your Schneider ancestor may have been enumerated as a Tailor/Taylor. Your Blanc ancestor may have been enumerated with the last name White. And your Verde ancestor may have been listed as a Green.
So it may be perfectly normal for me to be sitting at the computer looking for Mustard instead of going into the kitchen cabinet <grin>.
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How very interesting! Goid point. Something u had as a Tip of the Day, u reminded me about spelling if names. Then I remembered that it was in the 1860’s I think that my family changed from Malloy, Milloy to Millay. So before the 1870s. I have to look for different name changes for sure. Thank u for your reminders. They help a lot.
I once taught with a husband and wife named Mustard who took my adult evening German class and so we had a kind of running joke about them being Herr and Frau Senf.
I have come across an ancestor named Peter Markham being listed as Ham, Mark. No Peter in sight.