I’m looking for a man named Johann Michael Senf who was born in Wohlmuthausen, Germany in 1835. He probably immigrated to the United States as his mother and some of his siblings are known to have immigrated after his father’s death.
His “call name” (the name he was known by) was likely Michael Senf based on the practice of others from the area where he was from. It is possible though that he used the first name Johann or John upon immigration to the United States. The last name of Senf occasionally gets spelled Zenf and gets read as Serf. I need to conduct searches so that I search for those variants (in addition to other ones):
- Michael Senf
- Michael Serf
- Michael Zenf
- Johann/John Senf
- Johann/John Serf
- Johann/John Zenf
- etc.
While some sites offer Soundex-based searches or wildcard options that may be helpful, I need to make certain that any choices I make include at least these options (and any others that I decide are reasonable). A list of variants for Michael will help me make certain that I look for all options where I perform a search.
I cannot rely on the database to find all variants. Sometimes I have to think for myself.
3 Responses
I would also look for the surname Mustard. The German word Senf is translated as “mustard” in English. Colonel Mustard thinks his name may be a Clue.
Thanks for the reminder about that.
In some German documents and letters, I keep finding a capital “S” that is, to me, identical to the capital “L” except for a very tiny curlicue on the last stroke. All German nouns are capitalized, which gives me lots of practice deciding… Maybe you should include “Lenf” in your searches for “Senf”…?