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In Germany the surname we are interested in was spelled "Kühl"
(i.e. with an umlauted "u") and in English would be rendered "Kuehl";
however both Kuehl and Kuhl are used in various branches in this country.
In this work I have used the convention that personal names in Germany
with an umlaut are so recorded and local use is followed in the United
States ("Kühl" in Germany, "Kuhl"/"Kuehl" in the United States),
while place names with umlauts are transliterated (not "Schönberg" but
"Schoenberg"). Due to the modified vowel in "Kühl, the pronunciation
of the name shows some variety in the United States: "Kiel", "Cool",
"Quel" (all being used by various branches of the Peter Kuhl(#14) family).
Forenames as they appear in the Probstei church records vary from the
formal form. They were recorded in a Plattdeutsch familiar form. Men's
names tend to be unaffected, the only problem arises with Platdeutsch of
modern names. Thus "Heinrich" before about 1850 is always "Hinrich"; "Marcus"
in the early records is "Mars" or "Marx"; "Claus" may also appear as "Clas",
"Class", "Klaus"; and "Joachim" invariably appears as "Jochim". Women's
names present a far greater problem; they were almost always entered in the
familiar or diminutive form. In this work I have used the names as found
in the church baptism/marriage/death records. In the following table on the
left is the formal form while the form(s) encountered in the church records
is(are) on the right. The names are listed in the approximate order of
popularity (top to bottom).
Anna Antje
Margaretha Gretje-Margreth-Grete-Greta-Greth-Gret-Margretha
Katharina Catharina-Trin-Trien-Trink-Trincke-Trina
Cecilia or Celia Sielke-Sielck-Sielcke
Bertha Beeke-Beke-Beeck-Beecke
Elisabeth Liesbeth-Lisbet-Liesbet
Magdalena Lenke-Lena-Malen
Maria Marick-Marike
Dorothea Dorthe
With two or multiple forenames it was always the second or one of the
internal names that was used in everyday discourse; thus Ernst Heinrich
Kuhl(#28) was Henry Kuhl and Peter Wilhelm Kuhl(#29) was William Kuhl.
In the United States of course such an automatic rule is not followed and
in the text I have bolded the forename used when known.
It was the custom in the Probstei into the early decades of the
nineteenth century that the eldest son was given his paternal grandfather's
forename and the second son the maternal grandfather's. We are able to trace
Peter Kuhl's(#14) first name back through the Horst and Sindt families.
Appendix B in Section III presents the use of the forename "Peter" in the
related families over a three hundred year period.
26 May 1999 (rev. 10 Mar 2007)