Cheri, Thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough
explanation. I had always accepted that things were confused but never
really thought about the reasons why.
This is not the only area where the Portuguese names don't "mesh" with
other, more common languages in genealogy. I like having my tree on
Ancestry so I can access it anywhere since I don't have a laptop
anymore, and share with family. When entering names, the tree tool
thinks it's doing me a favor by automatically putting in the father's
surname, etc. I love being reminded that the child's surname "should be
the same as the father's." If only they knew!
On 7/9/2010 9:56 PM, Cheri Mello wrote:
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
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