Dear Piotr, this is certainly an interesting idea - that's why I forward it to the Switzerland list as well as to a list of people engaged in German genealogy. It is going to be a lot of work, however, and one would have to look into the structure and the magnitude of the work first - we may come to the conclusion that it is not feasible. We need to differentiate two issues : changes in the spelling of names, and extinct families or family lines. Spelling of names : these happen much too frequently to try to follow them up. Extinct families : when I first read your note, it sounded like a change in spelling you were describing. I haven't checked Familiennamenbuch yet (have to visit the city library), but there is no entry Gu"ndrich (u-umlaut), Gundrich or Gindrich in the Swiss telephone directory. Next step would be "Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz" : there also extinct families are mentioned - if they were of a certain importance during their time, or had at least one famous family member. This is, of course, by no means a complete list, and it is not designed for this purpose - consequently it is a bit time consuming to find this information amongst the wealth of information in HBLS. I do not know about such a list, or a project on it, in Switzerland - has anyone any further information ? What is the situation in Germany ? Would anybody else be interested in starting a discussion on such a project ? Clearly, if we ever want to reach reasonable results for such a project, we need a large number of people contributing !! I am looking forward to everybody's comments - Wolf PS : Working as a physicist in radiotherapy I'm obviously pleased to get in contact with someone at such a famous institution - irrespective of the reason of the contact ;-)). -------------- Wolf W. Seelentag, PhD, e-mail : wolf@swissmail.com Klinik fuer Radio-Onkologie, Kantonsspital, CH - 9007 St. Gallen, Switzerland Tel : +41-71-4942233 Fax : +41-71-4942893
---------- Von: Piotr Gindrich[SMTP:piotrgin@sokrates.umcs.lublin.pl] Gesendet: Freitag, 24. Oktober 1997 16:37 An: wolf@swissmail.com Betreff: The surnames which have become extinct
I suggest establishing the list of German surnames which have become extinct.The first record of my surname Gundrich spelled with umlaut over u was found in Konolfingin in Cantone of Berne. So it probably has its roots in Switzerland. Thus it would be highly recommended if you could draw up the list of such surnames having Swiss origin. Yours faithully, Piotr Gindrich PS Now my surname is Gindrich as it was changed 100 years ago. Please contact me if you want some more info concerning the case. -------------------------------------------------- PIOTR GINDRICH, MA Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Institute of Education Faculty of Special Education Narutowicza 12; room 64A Postal Code: 20-004 LUBLIN POLAND Phone number: work 081-5322266, home 081-7470702 E-mail: piotrgin@sokrates.umcs.lublin.pl --------------------------------------------------