I’m in love. With the umlaut. The two dots over a German ‘o’
For instance. My German ancestors spelled our surname Brode. With an umlaut
‘o.’ But when they came to America
there was no such thing as an umlaut. So they resorted to an ‘oe.’ An Americanized spelling. That made me a
Broede. Names with an ‘oe’ in the middle are generally of German origin. The
spelling of surnames often change. Over the ages. For instance my relatives in
16th century Switzerland
had the surname Brathi. When they migrated to Germany, the spelling became Brode,
with the umlaut ‘o.’ That sounded like
Brathi in the German language. Makes me wonder. What we Broedes called
ourselves. When we lived in caves. Before the days of umlauts. -Jim Broede
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