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German SIG #Germany Re: German first name question #germany

Roger Lustig
 

Dear Lin:

You're not the first to have to work back >from information that everyone
could understand when it was written down long ago.

-le or -ele is a diminutive found in southern Germany, Austria, etc. In
northern Germany, -chen would be the equivalent, so Gretchen might be
Gretle (both short for Margarete). Yiddish uses the same diminutive
suffix: bubbele, shtickele, etc.

Resele: that's >from Rose, so Rosa, Rosalie, etc. The Hebrew-letters part
of the gravestone might say Reizl (with a zayin) or something similar.

Manele: possibly Emanuel, but more likely Manasse in Hebrew, Manus or
something like that in German.

Wolf: a very common name, equivalent to Benjamin/Ze'ev (see Genesis 49).
Any of those--possibly two forms--might show up on the gravestone. The
quote marks might refer to the "Onkle" part--perhaps he wasn't
technically an uncle to all who called him that. Note that "Onkle" is a
diminutive of "Onkel", the standard term for "uncle." People named Wolf
were often Wilhelm to the outside world.

Zilli: less obvious, but my first guess would be Caecilie. Both Cs in
that name and the Z in Zilli are pronounced like an English -ts-.

Good luck to you and your friend in Markt Berolzheim!

Roger Lustig Princeton, NJ USA research coordinator, GerSIG

On 4/21/2014, Lin wrote:
My grandfather, Max LEVI, wrote a list of the relatives buried in the
cemetery in Treuchtlingen. Unfortunately he wrote it in German , and did
not use people's actual names. He wrote things like Uncle Leser and
Tante Zilli, cousin Wolf with no last names. People like "my dear mother
gone to her reward" we know who that is. Almost no one on the list is
written with a last name (even ones I'm sure had last names) So it's a
bit difficult figuring out who some of these people are. He did write
the row and "stone" number, which I assume is the grave number on the
row. A gentleman who lives in the town where my mom, grandfather and his
mother were born, Markt Berolzheim, has graciously offered to go the
Treuchtlingen and try to find some of the headstones. I wish I knew
everyone's real names, the names that would be on the headstones. There
are some names that sound like they might be nicknames, so I wondered if
you could give me some ideas of names he might look for. I have read
some of the gravestones are no longer there, so someone might not be
stone 5 in row 4 anymore.
Here are the ones I need help with:
My ggg grandmother's name was Resele. SCHOENWALTER HERZ. Resele sounds
like a nickname for something. Was it an actual name that might be on a
headstone. What could it be a nickname for.
My ggg grandfather was Manele (HERZ). Is Manele a nickname for Emanuel?
Is Wolf a nickname? He has marks around the name. Onkle Wolf,
Also is Zilli a nickname?
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