I am searching the Raduraksti website for more ancestors of the Stern/Steinblum family and one record shows an Ernst Steinblum who was married to someone called Edde (The handwriting is messy so I think it is Edde).  This is a Latvian name and I wonder whether is could be the Latvian form of Elisabeth?

Could someone clarify or correct this for me?  I am trying to find a link to my great grandmother and I have another record of an Ernst Stern being married to an Elisabeth.

Thank you all… you have been helpful in the past!

Cheers

Michelle Manea

Hi, Michelle,

To me it would seem unlikely that the pre-20th century name Edde (also spelled: Ede) would be related to the name Elisabeth or Elizabete.  The latter is associated with Līze (variation: Līza) and in the late 19th century -  Lizete or Lizette.

I’ve always thought Edde or Ede was a shorter version of Edīte or in English - Edith.  But that’s just a guess.  I was pretty amazed to learn that the given name Late – which was fairly popular prior to the 20th century – was a short version of Šarlote, or in English - Charlotte.  So, perhaps Edde/Ede is associated with an entirely different name other than Edīte/Edith - or none at all.

Something else to keep in mind: by the mid 19th century it wasn’t unusual for children to be given a first name and one or more middle names.  However, beginning in the late 1880’s when Russification was in full force, secular documents frequently only recorded the first name, the patronymic and surname, even though the person might be known familiarly only by a middle name.  For example, a girl -whose father’s name was Augusts Ozols- could have been baptised as Edde Elisabeth Ozols, but was called Elisabeth by her family and friends.  Yet toward the end of the 19th century, documents would refer to her as Edde Augustovicha Ozols.  This isn’t necessarily a common occurrence, but I know of so many cases where descendants were completely unaware of an ancestor’s ‘real’ first name until documents were found during a family search, that I wouldn’t call it rare. 

There’s no way to determine whether multiple given names applies to your search, but I mention it only to urge you to keep an open mind when dealing with archival records. 

Good luck with it! : )

Elizabete

PS There’s also the possibility that Ernst had two wives, the first dying perhaps in childbirth or because of a virulent epidemic.

Hi!

thanks for the helpful insight…I really appreciated it.  In the two years I have been using Raduraksti, I have noticed just the thing you mentioned.  Most of my ancestors have German names but I have noted many times that they often had one or two middle names and then often used one or the other as a given or first name.  There are also many discrepancies in the way in which those names were recorded. For example someone might be recorded as Elisabeth Isabella Viktoria in one record, Isabella in another and so on.

Thank you again.  Your suggestion of Ernst remarrying sounds most plausible, especially since his date of birth matches in both records I have.  I was simply a little confused as to the Latvian name of his wife.

Regards!

Michelle