Web Resources: Google Translate

If there's one tool that's a total necessity for people with an ancestry that spans multiple countries, then it's Google Translate.

Google Translate is a free online and app-based translator that can translate words, sentences, and whole blocks of text instantaneously. I will be discussing the web version as this is the one I use as a genealogy research tool.

Surname: Havenith - variants in my family tree

On my quest to find my earliest recorded HAVENITH ancestor, I have come across a few different variants. Most connected to my family, but a couple that I've seen in the same scanned collections as the records I was looking for.

Here are the variants I've found so far, in chronological order:

The earliest record I've been able to find so far is a marriage record from sometime in 1696 for Joannes and Odilia. I say sometime, as it appears to be the only record not given a day and month! It is located between marraiges records on 4 July and record is 4 9bris (November), so is likely to have taken place between those dates. In this record the spelling is HAVENIT.

HAVENIT

Moving on to 1701 and we have a baptism record for their son, Joannes Hubertus, who later used the name Hubert. This time the surname is spelt: HABENIT.

HABENIT

In 1732, Hubert got married to Cathar(ina) Emonts. At this time, the surname was written as HAVENIET.

HAVENIET

In 1754 we find the first usage of HAVENITH. This is Joannes, Hubert's son, marrying Anna Elisabetha EMONS. You will notice that JANSSEN is appended to HAVENITH. This is likely to be the priests way of remembering which HAVENITH he is - although more commonly we see place names appended in this way. It may be the surname of the person who owns his accommodation or perhaps his employer and may therefore be a 'house' or 'farm' name [1].
As family historians we work from the child (the known) backwards to parent and extended family (the unknown): It was from Joannes' baptism record that I found the name of his parents. From searching the scanned collections, there are only 1 Joannes HAVENITH and Anna Elisabetha EMONS that got married, so I feel confident that I have the correct people.

HAVENIET

Joannes, had a son Joannes Josephus baptised in 1760. We see that the JANSSEN hasn't followed him and that the current spelling of HAVENITH has remained stable.

HAVENITH

But that stability doesn't remain! 

We then have HAVENIETH which starts with Johannes Josephus and continues until 1902 when my GGgrandfather is born with HAVENITH.
While HAVENIETH remains stable during these generations in the official records, the people themselves tend to sign their name as HAVENITH. I'm not sure if this is because HAVENIETH was seen as an official or formal spelling, but eventually the modern spelling won out.

HAVENIETH

My Ggrandfather's birth record. We're finally back to HAVENITH in 1902 and this spelling continues in my family up to the present day - including my son, who was born in 2015.

HAVENITH

The following two images show what appear to be variants and in the same area (Liège, Belgium), but do not seem to be related to my ancestors:

HAAFFNIT

HAFFNIT

References1) Kimberly Powell. (nd). German Surnames - Meanings & Origins. Available: http://genealogy.about.com/cs/surname/a/german_surnames.htm. Last accessed 25/06/2015.

Book Review: Seven Ages of Britain by David Dimbleby

I like to take the long view with genealogy and think about the lives my ancestors would have lived. While I'll probably never be able to find ancestors even 500 years back, the fact that I'm here, writing this, means that I do have ancestors not just 500 years but all the way back to the origins of Homo sapiens.

While this book doesn't go that far back, starting proper at the invasion of the Romans who gave us the name Britain, it goes far enough back to set the mind wandering.

The focus of this book, and the television series it accompanies, is the past 2000 years of history of Britain through its artefacts and art.

I'm not a big fan of art; I'm the sort of person who likes what he likes and rarely ventures further. We have artwork on our walls, but I couldn't tell you the style - apart from the Monet of course, which is impressionism and is a topic I covered for my GCSE Art. This probably gives you a good impression of the art I like! However, the book and television series were insightful and helped me understand the impact of art on the people of Britain through the ages.

The television series relies on the sense of humour and the impact of the art upon David Dimbleby, but the book wasn't written by his, so how did it fare? I was very impressed with the book, each chapter covers an age and is written by an expert.

About a third of the art in the book is different to that shown in the television series and the book delves deeper. This provides a better understanding not only of the artists, or subjects of the art, but of the people of the age. Some of the artwork is unlikely to have been seen by our ancestors, but a lot of the art is about them - just ordinary people living through history, being impacted by it whether they liked it or not; whether they understood it or not.

Of course, being a fairly short book and being restricted to art, large chunks of history are missing. But there are plenty of books that deal with continuous history of Britain.

While you're unlikely to find your ancestors referenced in the book, the last four chapters are from the 1600s onwards and therefore in the realm of many people's family tree. It's nice to get this view of their world, especially seeing the art of satirists such as James Gillray in the 18 century. To him, everyone was fair game - so it's nice to wonder if our ancestors were becoming less restricted in their thoughts, after centuries of restrictions via religion and feudalism - possibly having a giggle at Gillray's creations and eagerly awaiting the next one. 

I enjoyed reading this book and advise anyone interested in family history, or just history in general, to have a read - I expect there will be few libraries that don't have a copy as the television series was quite a success.

Web Resources: Google Street View

When conducting genealogical research, I find that it's far too easy to fall into the trap of spending a lot of time chasing birth, marriage, and death records to further the line you're working on. Often (depending on the country you're researching), these BMD records, along with other sources, such as obituaries will provide addresses of where our ancestors lived at the time.

So, when I want a break from BMD records, I head straight over to Google and have a look at Street View. Of course, houses may well have changed since your ancestors resided there - or that street you're looking for may not even exist these days, but it's enjoyable to have a virtual wander around these locations.