As discussed elsewhere, when I looked at the first few sacramental records of individuals whose names were indexed in the Church books, I found that the original spellings were usually different. It was clear that the character <ÿ> was used with a variation of spelling that made it quite possible that these more ancient inhabitants of the town might be related to my more modern 19th Century ones. Below are some examples of what I found with annotations in the images and accompanying them.
Here is the death record Of Maria Catharina Barbara Baÿerlin who was 47 when she died. The notation is written in Latin. It was indexed in the 20th Century under the name Bayerle. Note that the ÿ is umlauted and the feminine ending in is added.
Here is the death record of Catherina Baierlein who died in 1815 at the age of 60 Jahren. The entry was not included in the index. Note that the entry is written in German. There is a letter <i> substituted for the letter <y> in her last name and the feminine suffix <in> is added. Note also in the date that July is spelled <Julÿ> with an umlaut.
Below is the 1910 death record of Isabella Baÿrin. It was indexed as Bayrin. It occurs to me as I write this that when German nouns are made pleural, the vowel or the word is often umlauted. I do not know that this was the case for gender suffixes. Note also that she died in House Number 112. My ancestor Joseph Baÿrl lived in house 128.
Here is the 1809 death record of Jakob Bairle who died at the age of 55. The entry was indexed as Bayrle. This is a clear example of a substitution of y for i.
Here is still another variation, the death record of Johann Georg Karl, the illegitimate son of Anna Baÿrlin, written with the umlauted ÿ but without an e. The child was 1 year 3 months old at his death.
Here is the last record available to me as of Nov 2, 2008. It is somewhat ambiguous but quite fascinating for its possibilities. It is the death record of Barbara Baiirin. It was apparently indexed initially as Bayer but possibly altered to read Bauer. I was initially very excited for an apparent substitution of a double <ii> for an umlauted <ÿ>. Bauer is a common German name (meaning farmer), and in the old script its <u> would be written not with an umlaut, but with a continuous line above it such as is seen in the word uhr (hour), the second word in the sentence following the numeral 6. The month März in the date column receives its usual umlaut.
I am sure that will be more examples available when I have the time to look, but it already is beginning to look like there may be some sore of <y for i or ii> interchange going on.
Peter Hasselbacher
Nov 2, 2008
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