Identifying Place Names in German documents: Difference between revisions

       None of these spellings were found in the gazetteers. After some questioning, he was informed that the name of the place was given by word of mouth by a living relative from Germany who did not speak English too well.  When the patron asked this relative where his ancestor was born, the answer given was: "Weiss nicht." Of course, "Weiss nicht" translated into English means "I don't know." The patron thought that "Weiss nicht" was the place where the ancestor was born, which he phonetically spelled as "''Viceneck''."

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Another difficulty occurs when there are several places by the same spelling in the same province or canton of a German-speaking country. More often there are places by the same spelling found in different provinces or cantons of a certain country. It is also possible that the place name could refer to a place name in a German-speaking area outside of Germany. Problems of this nature are often difficult but not uncommon. <br>The gazetteer of the 1871 Empire of Germany is titled {{FHL|325694|title-id|disp=Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs- Lexikon}}. This gazetteer lists:  

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Some places can only be found by checking detailed maps for various time periods. &nbsp;Maps of the German Empire of 1871 (FHL film 068,814) is an excellent source for locating older place names. &nbsp;These and other maps are now available on Ancestry.com. &nbsp;  

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Place names can take a variety of forms when applied to different languages. Note these endings of German place names and the changes that can occur when applied to various languages.