Posts in December 14, 2008

It took me forever to find Ulfert Behrens in the 1860 and 1870 census. The problem was partially solved when I learned how he likely pronounced his name. This low-German native probably said his name something like “barns.” Here I was thinking it would have been pronounced “Bear unds” (rhyming with roughly with “errands”). Once I started looking for names that sounded like “barns” I found references I had previously overlooked. Find out how your ancestor likely said his name–you may get variant spellings that you never thought to look for. ———————————— Check out GenealogyBank’s Offer for Tip of the Day Fans!