Week 6 – 2020: Same Name

Like every genealogist I’ve ever met, I experience frustration with my ancestors using the same name over and over again. Although no less frustrating, it’s understandable as most of our ancestors chose names to honor people.[1] For the most part, my British and German ancestors followed the conventional pattern of the time[2]:

·      First son – named after father’s father

·      Second son – named after mother’s father

·      Third son – named after father

·      Fourth son – named after father’s oldest brother

And so on.

·      First daughter – named after mother’s mother

·      Second daughter named after father’s mother

·      Third daughter – named after mother

·      Fourth daughter – named after mother’s oldest sister

And so on.

 Depending on the situation, this is either a really bad thing or a pretty good thing.

 Let me explain.

 The “bad” part of this may be obvious: Let’s say your ancestors all lived in the same town and say that your third great-grandfather was named John, and he was the third son of a John. And let’s say your third great-grandparents had four sons. Under this scenario, all of their sons would name their first-born sons John. Ugh! And to make matters worse, if they all live in the same community, then all the men likely had the same/similar job. Good luck with that! 

Now for the “good” part. Let’s say you are looking for your second great-grandparents in the manifests for ships arriving into the port of New York between when they married in 1840 in Germany and when their first U.S.-born child came along in 1846. Well, I’ll tell you that it really helps when you know that mom had a sister named Philippina and you find a ship’s manifest with a daughter of that name showing them arriving in New York on 3 January 1845.[3] Those unusual names that survive generation to generation can be a boon to your research. 

My second great-aunt, Philippina (née Glaeschen) Messner caused me a few more problems with her name. For many years, I could not locate her beyond the ship’s manifest and her (as a nine year-old) living with her family in Penn Township, Pennsylvania.[4] You’d think with a name like that, it would be relatively easy to track her, but for some reason she gave me trouble. It wasn’t until Find My Past published the New York City Catholic marriage and baptismal records that I found her marriage in 1864 to Joseph Messner.[5] This was a great record to find because Philippina and her sister Catherine were married the same day.

I tracked Philippina under her married name until 1870.[6] I know she and Joseph had a number of children after 1870, but I had yet to find them in the census records until a week or so ago. With a bit of serendipity, luck, and using a broader-than-normal search I located her death certificate and a census record.  

I’ll cut to the chase – Philippina died of cancer 8 December 1899 in Brooklyn, New York and was buried 11 December in the same cemetery as her parents. The name on her death certificate is “Mina Moeshner.”[7] What the what? The only way I found it was through a wide-open search on FamilySearch.org with New York as the place of death and “Glacy” as the father’s last name (it wasn’t as easy as all that - I tried multiple iterations for the father’s last name). 

How did Phippina Messner get to be Mina Moeshner? At first, I thought it might be a mis-translation or a “simple” misspelling. You can never get too hung-up on spelling with historical records because you are at the “mercy of the person with the pen.” However, in this case, it seems that the change in spelling was deliberate. Using “Moeshner,” I found Joseph’s death certificate, and found Phillipina and two of her children in the 1892 New York state census.[8] However, both Joseph and the remaining Messner family went went back and forth between Moeshner and Messner for some time. Why? No idea. 

Thanks, Philippina for the unusual name but no thanks for randomly changing it.[9]

[1] I’m guessing you did too when you named your children. 

[2] James M. Beidler, “Understanding German Language and Surnames,” Family Tree Magazine, no date provided; digital images, Familytreemagazine.com (https://www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/understanding-german-language-and-surnames/ : accessed 9 February 2020). FamilySearch Wiki, “British Naming Conventions,” rev. 23:29, 2 February 2016.

[3] Of course, that’s not the only piece of evidence I had, but it was the lynch-pin that helped me put this family in the U.S. at the right time.

[4] 1850 U.S. census, Berks Co., Pennsylvania, population schedule, Penn Township, p. 66B (stamped), dwelling 169, Family 186, Joseph Glasy; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 February 2020); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll752.

[5] Most Holy Redeemer Parish (New York, NY), Parish Register, p. 118, Mossner-Glasgen marriage (1865); image, findmypast, "New York Roman Catholic Parish Marriages," (http://www.findmypast.com : accessed 6 Dec 2018)

[6] 1870 U.S. census, New York county, New York, population schedule, New York Ward 17, District 16, p. 161 (stamped), dwelling not noted, family 531, Phillipina Mesner in household of Charles Scherl; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 February 2010); citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 1037.

[7] City of New York, certificate and record of death no. 20451 (1899), Mina Moeshner [Philippina Messner]; digital image received from NYC Municipal Archives, New York, New York (2020).

[8] 1892 New York state census, Kings County, Brooklyn, p. 8; "New York State Census, 1892," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6DQV-3V?cc=1529100&wc=3FG6-92G%3A69522401%2C70011301 : 22 May 2015), Kings > Brooklyn, Ward 26, E.D. 13 > image 6 of 11; county offices, New York.

[9] Thanks also for help from Deborah G., my 3rd cousin 2x removed with whom I share 17 cM.

I don’t have any pictures of Philippina. This is the ship that carried Joseph Glaeschen, his wife, Elizabeth, three year-old Philippina, my great-grandfather Joseph who was less than a year old, and Elizabeth’s sister and brother, Mararetha and Nicholas Rebholz to America from LeHarve, France, in 1845. The New York Herald on 11 January 1839 reported "Havre packet LOUIS PHILIPPE, Capt John Castoff made an 1838 passage New York to Havre, 3293 miles, in 13 days, 20 hours, a new course record." From 24 July 1837 through 31 Dec 1847 she made at least 28 voyages from LeHarve.