ROOTS & BRANCHES

It was when the late, great Federation of Genealogical Societies conference was in Pittsburgh in 2017 that I met David Hill.
Since then we’ve bumped into each other at a few conferences and stay in touch on Facebook and I daresay have become friends. My admiration for him has grown since he’s a genealogist who I’d call a hobbyist with the instincts of a professional.
So when he asks a well-framed question from which others could benefit, it’s worth spending a “Roots & Branches” column answering it.
Hill noted that he’s trying to use more mature methods of organization for his personal family tree but found some difficulties.
“I have continually been running up against the naming conventions of Germans or German-speaking peoples,” Hill wrote.
“For instance, one of my great-great grandfathers was a man named George Fichter, who emigrated from Alsace in 1872, but clearly thought of himself as Germanic,” Hill continued. “Different documents express his name differently. The passenger list for his emigration voyage lists him as ‘George Fichter.’ But his marriage license, from 1875, lists him as ‘John G. Fichter.’ His confirmation certificate from 1892 for the American Evangelical Lutheran Church also lists him as ‘John George Fichter,’ but in his 1874 personal Gefangbuch for the church that he brought with him from Alsace, he wrote his name as ‘Georg Fichter.’ He was consistently known as ‘George Fichter’ in local records and newspaper articles, but on a document that appears to be his original passport or travel document, his name is listed as ‘Johannes Georg Fichter.’ ”
All this left Hill with the question of how to put this man’s name in his genealogy software.
Before I got to that question, I did validate that many Alsatians spoke German and considered themselves culturally German.
As far as how to list this man’s name, I’m certain that the man was baptized with a Rufname (literally “call name”) of Georg or Jőrg, which for most Germans from the beginning of records into the 19th century was what we’d call the “middle name,” following what I call a “prefix name” of Johann, Johannes, or Hans.
Based on that, I’d use the passport name in the software (unless the baptismal name is different) but put George in parentheses since that appears to be the most popular usage of his name later in life: Johannes Georg “George” Fichter
The marriage record with “John G. Fichter” on it probably was filled out by a minister who was either ignorant of this naming tradition or simply was trying to use a American form for it (I have a couple of similar records for my ancestor Johann Christian Hiester in which he is identified as “John C.,” not a styling I think he would have chosen for himself since I see most other records showing him as simply Christian or even Christ).