FITZER; handling misspellings

Hi Everyone,

I’m tentatively interested in the Czernowitz area – my reasoning might be of
interest. My grandmother’s family (FITZER) lived in Stanislau (now Ivano-
Frankivsk) in Galicia. But, among the several hundred photos my mother had were
4 or 5 of my Stanislau relatives taken in photographers’ studios in Czernowitz.
Why would they go to Czernowitz to have photos taken? Must have been visiting
relatives!?!? My suspicions are supported by the finding of FITZERs in
Czernowitz, Sadagura and Radauti.

Perhaps the following tip will be helpful. As you know, it’s helpful to search
all sorts of variants and mangled spellings of names. There are several ways a
spelling can be corrupted, among them: 1) variants in names, 2) ignorant
misspellings, 3) random transcription errors, and 4) systematic
misinterpretation of European handwriting. Concerning the 4th type of error, I
have found S interpreted as L, thus Sadagora became Ladagora in an Ellis Island
database record. Also, u and n often look similar. Thus, Radauti became Radanti
in at least one Ellis Island record.

John Hoenig

Searching for
FITZER eastern Galicia and Czernowitz area
PELLER eastern Galicia especially around Jablonow, Kolomea, Stanislau, and
elsewhere


Received on 2002-07-04 13:13:31