The release of the 1940 census has been much anticipated in the genealogical community. I am no exception. In terms of exploring your ancestors' linguistic heritage this census offers some good news and some bad news.
The bad news
For most people listed in the census information about the birthplace of parents and the language of the individual is not given. However, some individuals are singled out for supplementary questions. These questions do ask about the mother tongue of the individual and their parents' birthplaces. Unfortunately, there are no questions about the mother tongue of parents as was the case in the 1920 census.
The good news
If you are lucky enough to have an ancestor who was singled out for the supplementary questions, you will not only get information about the mother tongue of foreign-born ancestors, but also of American-born ancestors. Language questions were asked in four different censuses before 1940. In 1890 and 1910 the mother language of the individual was only given if the person did not speak English. In 1920 and 1930 the question concerned only the foreign-born population, so if you spoke Cajun French or Pennsylvania Dutch this information was not recorded. The 1940 census will be particularly helpful with groups that maintained their languages in the United States.
People working on Native American ancestry should be particularly aware of this question, as it will be the first time where you will have a clear indication about whether a native language was spoken in the household.
For more information about language in earlier censuses, check out this post.
Showing posts with label census records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label census records. Show all posts
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Surname Saturday - Kowatch
This month I am focusing on surnames that are in some way related to that most common of English surnames, Smith. Like people, languages can be grouped into families that are related by descent from a common ancestor. Languages in the same family will resemble each other in many ways. Last Saturday, I talked about the surname Smith, which comes from the word for someone who works with metal. English belongs to the Germanic language family which includes German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages. So, you find surnames like Schmidt in German or Smit in Dutch with the same meaning and origin.
In Europe there are three very large and important language families: Germanic in the North, Romance in the South, and Slavic in the East. In Slavic surnames derived from the word meaning Smith are also very common. These include Kowalski and Kowalczyk in Polish, Kovář in Czech, Kováč in Slovak, Koval and Kovalenko in Ukranian, Kovalev in Russian, and Kovač in Serbian.
Mathias Kowatch in the US Census
My second great aunt, Gertrude Schoendorf, married Matthew Kowatch. This surname is most likely related to the Slavic surnames described above. But, before we examine how it is related, let's take a look at my aunt's father-in-law, Mathias Kowatch In a post earlier this week (here), I explained how we can use census to explore our linguistic heritage. Mathias Kowatch can be found in four censues (1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930). Several different responses are provided for his place of birth. These include both the place listed on his enumeration and that of his son.
1900 - Hungary
1910 - Germany
1920 - Slk/Hun.
1930 - Czechoslovakia/Hungary
But in the three years where the mother tongue is provided, German is given. What's going on here?
First, the 1910 census appears to involve a mistake. I would guess that the enumerator assumed Mathias was from Germany because he speaks German. This would fall into the category of an error. For the other cases we have to understand something about the history of the region. Before 1918, much of eastern Europe was under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This empire was divided into two main parts: Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary covered modern Hungary along with modern Slovakia and parts of Romania and the former Yugoslavia. The kingdom also contained large numbers of German minorities scattered throughout (See map of ethnic makeup of the empire here). The pattern in the censuses suggest that Mathias was from what is now Slovakia and that he was a member of the German speaking minority.
Another clue comes from another error by the enumerator, but this time the error is in our favor. Although the enumerator is only supposed to give the country of birth, sometimes a more specific location is given. The 1920 census provides the following information:
This somewhat difficult to decipher place name may correspond to the town of Medzev, Slovakia, which is known in German as Metzenseifen.
The development of the surname Kowatch
Now that we have a better understanding of Mathias Kowatch, we can return to his surname. One of the most common names in Slovakia is Kováč, meaning "smith". In Hungarian, one of the most common names Kovács, which is spelled differently—both Slovak č and Hungarian cs are pronounced like English ch—but sounds pretty much the same way. The Hungarian name is a borrowing from Slavic. The name Kowatch, which was probably originally Kowatsch, is the German spelling of this Slavic name; German w corresponds to v and tsch corresponds to the ch-sound. Tsch may have been changed to tch under the influence of English words like "watch".
It is possible that this Kowatch family was originally Slovak or Hungarian, but were later Germanized, but there is no way to tell from the available evidence. Perhaps a DNA test would offer some evidence. This is a good example of how names are not always the best guide to the ethnicity of your ancestors. Although the origin of a name may point to your ancestors' origins, this may be very remote with your ancestors having assimilated to another culture long ago or they may have adopted a name which is unrelated to their own family's origins.
In Europe there are three very large and important language families: Germanic in the North, Romance in the South, and Slavic in the East. In Slavic surnames derived from the word meaning Smith are also very common. These include Kowalski and Kowalczyk in Polish, Kovář in Czech, Kováč in Slovak, Koval and Kovalenko in Ukranian, Kovalev in Russian, and Kovač in Serbian.
Mathias Kowatch in the US Census
My second great aunt, Gertrude Schoendorf, married Matthew Kowatch. This surname is most likely related to the Slavic surnames described above. But, before we examine how it is related, let's take a look at my aunt's father-in-law, Mathias Kowatch In a post earlier this week (here), I explained how we can use census to explore our linguistic heritage. Mathias Kowatch can be found in four censues (1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930). Several different responses are provided for his place of birth. These include both the place listed on his enumeration and that of his son.
1900 - Hungary
1910 - Germany
1920 - Slk/Hun.
1930 - Czechoslovakia/Hungary
But in the three years where the mother tongue is provided, German is given. What's going on here?
First, the 1910 census appears to involve a mistake. I would guess that the enumerator assumed Mathias was from Germany because he speaks German. This would fall into the category of an error. For the other cases we have to understand something about the history of the region. Before 1918, much of eastern Europe was under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This empire was divided into two main parts: Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary covered modern Hungary along with modern Slovakia and parts of Romania and the former Yugoslavia. The kingdom also contained large numbers of German minorities scattered throughout (See map of ethnic makeup of the empire here). The pattern in the censuses suggest that Mathias was from what is now Slovakia and that he was a member of the German speaking minority.
Another clue comes from another error by the enumerator, but this time the error is in our favor. Although the enumerator is only supposed to give the country of birth, sometimes a more specific location is given. The 1920 census provides the following information:
This somewhat difficult to decipher place name may correspond to the town of Medzev, Slovakia, which is known in German as Metzenseifen.
The development of the surname Kowatch
Now that we have a better understanding of Mathias Kowatch, we can return to his surname. One of the most common names in Slovakia is Kováč, meaning "smith". In Hungarian, one of the most common names Kovács, which is spelled differently—both Slovak č and Hungarian cs are pronounced like English ch—but sounds pretty much the same way. The Hungarian name is a borrowing from Slavic. The name Kowatch, which was probably originally Kowatsch, is the German spelling of this Slavic name; German w corresponds to v and tsch corresponds to the ch-sound. Tsch may have been changed to tch under the influence of English words like "watch".
It is possible that this Kowatch family was originally Slovak or Hungarian, but were later Germanized, but there is no way to tell from the available evidence. Perhaps a DNA test would offer some evidence. This is a good example of how names are not always the best guide to the ethnicity of your ancestors. Although the origin of a name may point to your ancestors' origins, this may be very remote with your ancestors having assimilated to another culture long ago or they may have adopted a name which is unrelated to their own family's origins.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Exploring your linguistic heritage #3: U.S. Censuses
Not many records will directly address the question of what languages your ancestors spoke. One notable exception is census records. The U.S. censuses provide two relevant types of information.
Mother tongue
The first type of information is direct; censuses in some years provide explicit information about language. Both the 1920 and 1930 Censuses ask for the mother tongue or native language of foreign-born individuals, while the 1920 Census also asks for information about the mother tongue of foreign-born parents. Take my 2nd great grandmother Mary (Runiger) Kingsbury. She was born in Ohio, so her mother tongue is not listed in the 1920 Census, but her father was born in Switzerland and her mother was born in Germany, so their mother tongues are listed here as German.
The language spoken by an individual may also be listed in the 1910 and 1890 Censuses, but only if he or she does not speak English. My 2nd great grandfather, Paul Schoendorf, was born in Germany and spoke German, but also spoke English, so his mother tongue, German, is not listed in the 1910 Census.
In contrast, his mother tongue is listed as German in both 1920 and 1930.
1920:
1930:
Make sure that you know what is being asked. Read the column headings and the census instructions, which can be found on the Census Bureau website (here).
Place of Birth
The second type of information is more indirect. All censuses since 1850 have asked about the place of birth of individuals and every census from 1880 to 1930 lists the places of birth of both the father and mother of the individual. The place of birth can be an important clue to what languages your ancestors spoke. This is also a case where it is useful to check out the the census instructions. There are very specific instructions about how to list places of birth. For example, the 1910 instructions direct the enumerators not to list "Poland" but instead either "Germany (Pol.)", "Austria (Pol.)" or "Russia (Pol.)".
Keep in mind that there are limitations to using the census. First, not all enumerators followed the instructions very well. In some cases, this can be to your advantage; they may add more specific information than requested by the census. In other cases, this may mean incorrect information; they may have incorrectly assumed the language of individuals in the census or simply not understood the person being interviewed.
Second, information, especially about parents, may be incorrect. Your ancestors may not have known this information or may have had some reason to give false information. You may have an ancestor where the place of birth of a parent seems to change with every census. However, don't immediately assume that the information is false; there may be important clues even when the information is inaccurate or inconsistent. For example, for my 2nd great grandfather, Alfred Eugene Madison, his father's place of birth is listed as New Brunswick (C. Fr. [Canada French]) in 1900, Can. English in 1910, and Scotland in 1920. Of course, the last census is not compatible with the earlier ones, but maybe this indicates something about his ancestry.
Finally, the place of birth only tells us what languages our ancestor may or most likely would have spoken. No country is purely monolingual and there are always linguistic minorities. Remember that place of birth is only a clue, it's not direct evidence.
Mother tongue
The first type of information is direct; censuses in some years provide explicit information about language. Both the 1920 and 1930 Censuses ask for the mother tongue or native language of foreign-born individuals, while the 1920 Census also asks for information about the mother tongue of foreign-born parents. Take my 2nd great grandmother Mary (Runiger) Kingsbury. She was born in Ohio, so her mother tongue is not listed in the 1920 Census, but her father was born in Switzerland and her mother was born in Germany, so their mother tongues are listed here as German.
The language spoken by an individual may also be listed in the 1910 and 1890 Censuses, but only if he or she does not speak English. My 2nd great grandfather, Paul Schoendorf, was born in Germany and spoke German, but also spoke English, so his mother tongue, German, is not listed in the 1910 Census.
In contrast, his mother tongue is listed as German in both 1920 and 1930.
1920:
Make sure that you know what is being asked. Read the column headings and the census instructions, which can be found on the Census Bureau website (here).
Place of Birth
The second type of information is more indirect. All censuses since 1850 have asked about the place of birth of individuals and every census from 1880 to 1930 lists the places of birth of both the father and mother of the individual. The place of birth can be an important clue to what languages your ancestors spoke. This is also a case where it is useful to check out the the census instructions. There are very specific instructions about how to list places of birth. For example, the 1910 instructions direct the enumerators not to list "Poland" but instead either "Germany (Pol.)", "Austria (Pol.)" or "Russia (Pol.)".
Keep in mind that there are limitations to using the census. First, not all enumerators followed the instructions very well. In some cases, this can be to your advantage; they may add more specific information than requested by the census. In other cases, this may mean incorrect information; they may have incorrectly assumed the language of individuals in the census or simply not understood the person being interviewed.
Second, information, especially about parents, may be incorrect. Your ancestors may not have known this information or may have had some reason to give false information. You may have an ancestor where the place of birth of a parent seems to change with every census. However, don't immediately assume that the information is false; there may be important clues even when the information is inaccurate or inconsistent. For example, for my 2nd great grandfather, Alfred Eugene Madison, his father's place of birth is listed as New Brunswick (C. Fr. [Canada French]) in 1900, Can. English in 1910, and Scotland in 1920. Of course, the last census is not compatible with the earlier ones, but maybe this indicates something about his ancestry.
Finally, the place of birth only tells us what languages our ancestor may or most likely would have spoken. No country is purely monolingual and there are always linguistic minorities. Remember that place of birth is only a clue, it's not direct evidence.
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