Re: HYER vs. HEYER....ethnicity?????
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In reply to:
HYER vs. HEYER....ethnicity?????
Donna Potter Phillips 1/09/04
Hi Donna,
I can share with you what I know about my family name of "Hyer."My g-g-grandfather immigrated to the states in 1842 from Norway where records show his last name could have been spelled "Hejer." The Norwegians didn't have family names as we do.Their activities were confined in small communities located in isolated mountain valleys so each person was known on a first name basis. When additional identification was needed to distinguish between two men of the same name, they were given another name, often times, it was the name of the farm on which they resided.My ancestor family seemed for several generations to use the name of Hejer or Heier.They were one of the few families who had and kept the same surname.
On the immigrations records and for a few years in America the family used the name of their last farm for a surname.The father was known as Lars Anderson Folseland.They eventually dropped that farm name of Folseland and used the Americanized name of Hejer or Heier which sounded somewhere between Hayer and Hyer.
The 1850, 1860 and 1870 census for Mission Township in La Salle County, Illinois lists different spellings for those in the same family.It was recorded as Hyer, Hayer, and Heyer.All the families, except that of Christian (my g-g-grandfather) eventually kept the spelling as Hayer.Christian left the family community when they had been using the HYER spelling.
This is just what I have recorded in my family history.Hope this helps.
Amy
More Replies:
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Re: HYER vs. HEYER....ethnicity?????
Donna Potter Phillips 7/30/07