Person:Hans Hamann (2)

From Linda Lanier <lkcopelanier@@hotmail.com>

Peter is the earliest known ancestor of my ggg-grandmother, Mary "Polly" Hamman. Information on the Hamman family in Germany was provided to me by Connie Thompson, secretary of the Hamman Family Association. Other family information came from early records of colonial Virginia, an interview by the Rev. J.J. Dickey with William Jackson Cope which is recorded in the Dickey Diary that is preserved on microfilm in the Lee College Library in Jackson, KY. In that interview, dated July 18, 1898, William Jackson Cope tells about his grandfather, Phillip Hamman,emigrating to America from Germany. He also tells about the move from Virginia to Kentucky by Phillip and Christina in 1782. Other information came from early Kentucky records, census records, and online family histories of some of Mary "Polly" (Hamman) Cope's siblings.

From Lilly Martin <malik@@scs-net.org>

Some Germans use their MIDDLE name as their CALLING name.

For example: a baby boy is born to a family, and they christen him as Heinrich George. He will be called at home and at school and later in adult life always as "George". This makes for confusion when after 100-200 years a genealogist like us goes to look for records and census records, and finds him legally listed as HENRY, or HEINRICH. It would make you want to believe you were finding the wrong man, when in reality he used his middle name as the calling name, and he used his TRUE first name when asked for it in LEGAL matters such as deeds, court records, and census records.

This rule holds true for LADIES as well. Margaret Elizabeth is always called Elizabeth or Lizzie or Libby. Well, where did the Margaret go? They just did not use it, except on her marriage certificate, or other such legal papers.

I am not sure WHY Germans do this, but I have found some Catholic people do this as well, for example some German Catholics, and some Irish Catholics. Maybe this tradition, or habit started off in Europe before the Reformation (Protestant religions) and it just stuck in certain areas.