Children with different last names
LCP2-MXR Jacob Smith (wasn't born in the midwest but died in Illinois so i'm still asking in this group ) he has many kids but some keep his last name which is Smith, and some have the last name of Schmidt. I haven't dug too deep yet but from what I've researched, I can't find why some of the children have different last names. Any idea why this would be the case?
Answers
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Schmidt is the German form of Smith. It is possible his last name was originally Schmidt and was changed to Smith in an effort to anglicise it.
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I thought that! But wasn't sure! But what's weird is it starts out Smith, then alternates back and forth to Schmidt and then Smith again. There's no consistency which is why I was confused. Maybe it's a matter of the person doing the geneology? I'll keep digging. Thank you @Kim Barney
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It is possible that the family itself vacillated for some time between the German and English forms and went by both fora while before deciding on Smith. It probably started out as Schmidt, even though you seem not to have a record of that.
This is what keeps things interesting!
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So, based on the ID number from FS which you so kindly provided, I took a look at your tree. Your Jacob appears to have gone by the surname of Smith, and his father, Jacob (L2V9-5Y7) surname is Schmid. Phonetically Schmidt and Schmid can, and often are the same, unless there is a dialect involved, and then it could be Schmiedt. But, in this case, I think they just went back and forth between Smith and Schmidt, although I don't why they added the t. Smith and Schmidt, and in this case Schmid are the same. I think @Kim Barney may be onto something, in that they were trying to fit in and appear more American.
I would probably look for records that show when the surname changed, and even contact the person who has made changes on FamilySearch to find out where they have their information from; is the surname change based on a family story, or do they have evidence of the name change?
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