Karlushko, English people don't put "DeBem," "DaSilva", etc. Americans do. I don't know about the Canadians and how they handle it. Since America was settled initially by many English, who don't use prefixes with their surnames, they didn't know what to do with prefixes. So they ran them together as they started to encounter them. The took the German-type "van de" and wrote "Vandewater." They took the Portuguese "de Mello" and wrote "Demello." When you go back in time, people just didn't have a lot of exposure like they do now to the various cultures. The worst case are the people in Hawaii that came from all over. Those names got messed up the most!
What surprises me are some the people at the Portuguese hall, who are the children of immigrants, who didn't immigrate that long ago. Maybe like the 1940s. They think their surname is "DaRosa" not "Rosa." They count the "Da" as part of their surname. It drives me crazy. And because we are taught in American to capitalize names, they take the prefix and capitalize it. They apply the American English spelling rules to all names. I do see them trying not to do that as much in the present time. That kid from the Netherlands - Joran van der Sloot - or something like that - the news here doesn't capitalize his prefix unless they begin a sentence with it: Van der Sloot was arrested on..... History can't be corrected. The databases here are done by either volunteers (who may not be familiar with that country's naming patterns) or outsourced to China or Sri Lanka. So those who are researching in America have to try to include the prefix, put the space in, leave the space out, and then try all over again without the prefix. I guess it just makes for good genealogy detective work ! :) Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada -- To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership."
