Schwarz, Schwerin, Schwern, Schwem, Schwimmer and Wendt were among the various ways I found the surname reported for my 2x great-grandmother. Those variations mostly came from poor transcriptions for a handful of documents. Frederica Wendt was given as the mother’s name on the death record of Mary Schatz Kruse, one of Friedricke’s daughters.

Death Record for Mary Schatz Kruse with Mother’s Surname as Wendt

Last year, I finally confirmed that her real name was Friedricke Dorothea Schwenn. She came to the United States from Bützow in Mecklenburg-Schwerin with her husband-to-be, Johann Friedrich Schatz, and their infant son, Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Schatz. They married a few weeks after arriving in Cincinnati, Ohio. Like so many other Mecklenburgers of their time, it appears that they had been unable to receive permission to marry in their native land. I located John and Friedricke’s original marriage license from FamilySearch.org and you can see how the problem was confounded. Friedricke’s surname is spelled two different ways in the same document!

Marriage Record for John Schatz and Friedricke

It is really difficult to find someone when you don’t know their correct name. Of course, most genealogists have the frustration of elusive maiden names for several of their female ancestors; and, in the case of Friedricke, her given name is subject to mangled spelling, too.  At least I was lucky to have something to approximate. I decided that I would need to go to the church records in Mecklenburg to sort out my dilemma. I knew that the last place of residence for John and Friedricke was Bützow. Because I knew that there would be no marriage record for Friedricke and John, I decided to search for the christening record for Carl, who later Americanized his name to Charles.

Since I had a specific date of birth of 5 September 1853 for Carl, it wasn’t too difficult to zero in on the record that I needed. I located it on film 69035 for the Evangelische Kirche – Stiftskirche Bützow. Not only was it plain that Friedricke’s surname was Schwenn, but one of the godparents for baby Carl was Wilhelmina Schwenn who may have traveled with the family to Cincinnati. Both Schwenn females are described as “mädchens” or maidens.

Christening Record for Carl Schatz with Mother’s Name as Schwenn

While this isn’t the worst case of misspelling that I have seen, the variation in surnames certainly kept me guessing for years. My next problem for the time being is locating a christening record for Friedricke. The church record for Carl says that his mother was from Baumgarten, but that she served (presumably worked) in Wolken; but I want to know, where was she born and who were her parents?