The spelling of a person's or family's name may appear in several different forms over the years and throughout the documents. Most of the people in rural Germany in the late 19th century were illiterate and relied on church pastors to write their names into the record books. Often, the pastor simply spelled a name phonetically to the best of his ability or just spelled it incorrectly without reference to earlier entries by another cleric.

The baptism, birth, census, marriage and death records for a particular family or person might have been recorded with different spellings by local clerks or census takers.

The dates and places match for each person but the name may be spelled differently on various forms. We will give most weight to instances where the person actually signed his or her name. Also, names chiseled onto headstones are usually creditable.

There is a common myth that names were randomly changed by the clerks at Ellis Island. Every passenger's name on the ship was listed and recorded at the port of departure such as Hamburg, Germany. Clerks who spoke the common European languages were available to help at the immigration centers in the U.S. Also, all the ancestors in this website came to America before Ellis Island opened in 1892. Most of them came through Castle Island which predated Ellis.

If you have some personal knowledge about this name, please let us know.

Several of the surnames of families in this website appear in various forms in records in Germany or in the U.S.

Unfortunately, in our search for family history, the surname of several branches including the Knaacks, Roggermans and a few others shown below have been spelled differently in different records. Fortunately, that does not seem to be the case with the surname Heiden. All the records we have traced back to the earliest German relative have the same spelling.

However, in U.S. Census records we sometimes find misspellings of the surname. Fortunately, when you look at the given names of spouses and children along with their ages at the time of the census, it is easy to determine if it is the correct Heiden family and not Hiden, Hyden, Hayden, Heyden, etc.

The word "Heiden" is found at the beginning of many legitimate German surnames such as Heidenfelter or Heidenreich. We have accumulated a list of nearly 40 of these names.

 

The spelling of this family's name seems to have varied over the years. Most of the people were illiterate and relied on the pastor to write their names into the church record books. Often, the pastor simply spelled a name phonetically to the best of his ability or just spelled it without reference to earlier entries by another cleric.

The birth, baptism, confirmation and parent records for what we will call the Kanseyer line all match in terms of dates, locations and relationships. The exact spelling of the surname, however, did not stay consistent over the decades.

The first generation we found listed the father's name as Jacob Canseyer. His first child is named Anna Ilsabe Canseyer but the second child is listed as Hinrich Kanseyer. All of Hinrich's children in the next generation are recorded as Kanseyer.

The children of his son, Christoph Friedrich Wilhelm Kanseyer continued that spelling except for one child whose name was spelled Kanseier and a son, Johann Carl Ernst who was listed as "Kansehr" in his chruch's records.

The next change may have come about because Christoph's church was in the village of Alt Sϋhrkow.  His son, Johann, lived in the village of Thϋrkow and the church records there also even misspelled his village of birth as Alt Sϋrkow.

In the records report we received from East Germany in 1973, the man listed as the "alleged" father of August Friedrich Anton Theodor Heiden was Johann Cansier of Gross Wokern. So, this was yet another clergyman spelling the name of a man who was most likely not personally involved in the process of recording his illegitimate child's birth.

Since that largest number of records spelled the name Kanseyer, that is the one we will use unless or until we find other evidence. Comments? Send an EMAIL.

Knaack - Knack - Kanak - Knaak - Rika (Mrs August) Heiden and her daughter-in-law, Anna (Mrs Ernst) Heiden had similar maiden names. Both have been recorded in different documents as having one of the four spellings above for their maiden name.

In researching Rika's background, the old German church records most frequently spell it Knaack. In America, we find the occasional Knaak or Kanack. Since Knaack appears to be the accepted German spelling, that is what we will use...for now.

Anna in her obituary is listed as Knaack also. However, tracing her back into Germany finds her father's name is Knack and her Social Security application has her maiden name as Knack. So, it would appear that it is the proper spelling of her name.

Jakob Möller was the grandfather of Rika (Mrs August) Heiden (right). As with several German names, this one has been spelled differently in certain German and American records. It may be represented as Möller, Muller or even Miller.

Ruggelin - Ruggelein - Roggelin - Roggelen
 Roglin - Roggelein - Roggelien -  Regelin

The spelling of this family's name has appeared in many different forms over the years and throughout the documents. Most of the people in rural Germany in the late 19th century were illiterate and relied on church pastors to write their names into the record books. Often, the pastor simply spelled a name phonetically to the best of his ability or just spelled it incorrectly without reference to earlier entries by another cleric.

The birth, census, marriage and death records for what we will call the Regelin family have been recorded in at least the eight variations listed at the top of this page. The dates and places match for each person but the name may be spelled differently on various forms. We will give most weight to instances where the person actually signed his or her name. Also, names chiseled onto headstones are usually creditable.

If you have some personal knowledge about this name, please let us know.

The wife of Charles Roggerman is listed as Louisa Rehman or Rheman in some records and Raymond in others including her obituary. Similarly, her son Ralph's middle name is usually listed as Raymond, however, his daughter, Mildred Heiden said that it should have been Rehman.

Roggerman or Roggeman or Roggermann? In U.S. census forms, the name is listed as either Roggerman or Roggeman. With the exception of Charles' (right) youngest child, George who chose to use the name Roggeman without the "r", the rest of the family regularly used Roggerman. In some German records it is spelled Roggermann and that is how it appears on the headstone for Charles, the ancestor who came from Germany although he used Roggerman during his life in America... from what we can tell.

Stock vs Stokes - The wife of Heinrich Heiden had the maiden name of Emma Stock. However, family members oven referred to her and her relatives as "Stokes".

Her Social Security application lists her as Emma Stokes. However, the U.S. Census of 1880 and 1900 list her as Emma Stock and her father as William Stock. Her 1901 marriage license says Stock.  The obituary for her mother Hannah, lists all the relatives' names as Stock...so that's the name we will use.

There is some confusion as to the proper spelling of some given names or commonly used nicknames.

There were two versions of a German feminine name in the family. Mrs August Heiden was Fredericka with Rika for short while Mrs Herman Heiden was Fredareka with Reka for short.

He was always known as Bob Roggerman but there is some confusion as to his full given name. On his marriage license, he is listed as Lewis Ralph Roggerman. On his military draft registration he is Ralph Lewis Roggerman and that is how he signed the form himself.

With such a large number of people in the extended families, it is not unusual that there are multiple people with the same given and surname. To help avoid confusion, we have listed several below.

There are three Carol Jean Heidens in the early generations. One was the daughter of Howard Heiden who died at birth. Another is Carol Jean (Heiden) Toburen, daughter of William Frank Heiden and the third was Carol Jean (Boos) Heiden, the wife of Harold Heiden.

There are two Gail Heidens in the early generations. One, Gail Ann was the daughter of Richard Lee Heiden who died at the age of 6 in 1961. The other is Gail Mildred, daughter of Arthur and Mildred Heiden.

There are two Gerald Heidens in the early generations. Gerald Lee (right) was the son of Herman D. Heiden. Gerald Walter was the son of Walter Heiden.

There were two Helen Heidens in the early generations. One, Helen Esther Heiden (right) was the daughter of William Carl Heiden. She was often known as "sister Helen". The other is Helen (Henning) Heiden who was the wife of William Frank Heiden.

Heinrich Heiden will be cited as the original Heinrich rather than his Americanized form of Henry F. to distinguish him from his son, Henry William Heiden who will be shown as Henry Wm Heiden (right).

There are two Herman Heidens in the early generations. Herman John Heiden, son of August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden and Herman D. Heiden, son of Lewis Heiden and grandson of Herman John.

There have been two Mildred Heidens. Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden (right) was the wife of Arthur Heiden. Mildred (Foster) was married to Howard Heiden.

There are two Richard Heidens in the early generations. Richard Lee (right) was the son of Herman John Heiden. Richard Carl is the son of William Frank Heiden.

There are two Ronald Heidens in the early generations. One, Ronald Edward is the son of Arthur Heiden. The other is the son of Howard Heiden. The two Ronalds are second cousins.

There are 3 William Heidens in the early generations. To differentiate among them, we will include their middle names. William Carl Heiden (right) to avoid confusion with his youngest son, William Frank Heiden. (They were sometimes mistakenly designated as Sr. and Jr.) William Leo Heiden is their nephew and cousin, respectively.

 

There are four men named either Heinrich or Henry Rambow. One is listed as Henry Martin Rambow III. If this is true, technically that would make his father Heinrich Ernst Rambow, Jr.(right) and his grandfather, Heinrich Christoph Rambow, Sr. but we did not find any references using these suffixes. This would also deviate from the traditional naming rules where a Sr, Jr and III would have the same middle names too.

The fourth person is Henry John Rambow, son of Alvin Rambow and grandson of Henry, III. Oh, well...another of those quirks found in genealogical research.

Theodore Strzesinski, Sr. had two wives named Dorothy Heiden. His first wife was Dorothy Heiden, daughter of Heinrich Heiden. After she died in 1967, he married Dorothy (Spohr) Heiden (right), the widow of Henry Wm Heiden.