German names

[Samom2006]

While researching my ancestors in Germany I have noticed that they seem to
at times at in to the end of a females surname, i.e. Franke becomes Frankin.
Does anyone know if this is a common practice, or is it just the way the
German handwriting looks???

Thanks,
Terri

[D. Stussy]

-in is a female gender suffix, just like -a was in Latin (and still is in
Spanish and Italian).

[Celia Mitschelen]

You may be having trouble with handwriting but you have this right. The 'in'
is a feminine ending.

Be aware that you will also find changes in male names. This is a different
situation though. It involves grammar rather than gender. You will find this
often in church records in situations where there is a sentence rather than
just a word or two in a column. It is the genitive case ending. For example
your Franke becomes Franken in the following situation.

Johannes, Georg Franken Sohn or Johannes, Sohn des Georg Franke
Both mean, Johannes, Georg Franke's son.
In later records sometimes one finds the s ending without the apostrophe,
later yet I have encountered a few apostrophe s's.

"Samom2006" <Samo...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:ELYb8.9127$UT6....@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net...

[Royjohnson99]

Are you sure it's always names? -in is the feminine ending for nouns; as in
Kellner (waiter), Kellnerin (waitress). There is probably some coneciton.

Roy Johnson
Researching Schnake/Shnacke worldwide
SchnakeNet http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake

Originally from Bergkirchen & Schnathorst parishes, near Minden, Westfalen

[Matthias Koch-Schirrmeister]

It was quite common until the early 19th century. The surname of a man is
supposed (or should be supposed) to be related to the profession he was
in. This name was transferred to his wife where it took the female form.
This was kept even when a surname no longer was a professional name.

Example: A family is named Schmidt (derived of Schmied), possibly because
one of its ancestors was a smith. Mr. Schmidt's wife would be called
"Schmidtin" (a femalized form of the already mutated profession Schmied).

This custom was dropped somewhere in the mid 19th century, I rarely found
it in documents later than 1870/1880 and never in documents of the 20th
century.

HTH
Matthias

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[Durango]

It may no longer be common in written language or in documents, but the
custom to add the suffix "in" to the family name (husband's name) to
refer to a woman is still very much in practice nowadays in Southern
Germany, e.g., "Frau Schulz" may be referred to as "die Schulzin", etc.

Durango
(believing is not knowing)
(zu glauben ist nicht zu wissen)