One of my favorite on line publications is Taki’s Magazine. I like this rich Greek good for nothing and the punch he shared around him. Recently I read an article of a certain Jim Goad, writing about white slavery, which rose my interest out of two reasons.

First, he wrote: “The telling of history is largely an exercise in guilt transference”.

I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume this perfect definition of a dubious science is grown in his intellectual garden; but further reading spread some doubts.

He wrote:” how English and Irish adults and children were kidnapped, beaten, tortured and worked to death in the New World”.

Correct, but I thought he forgot the Germans and sent him an email, which was promptly replied: “But you apparently didn’t click on the link in my article to the chapter from my book The Redneck Manifesto. The word “German” is mentioned 8 times”.

Obediently I clicked myself through and got informed on “White Slavery”.

Soon I realized, that Mr. Goad – on his name I will come back later, is not an easy going person. He lectured that from “der Vaterland” the “Naziland”, poor Palatines escaped to the land of Glory. Referred Gottlieb Mittelsberger’s Book “Reise nach Pennsyl-vannien” (read it on this link), which describes the transport conditions of the human freight, mainly on Dutch and English ships. Shocking indeed, but possibly better understood if told in empathy with less sarcasm.

Hundreds of thousands English immigrated to places wherever the English flag blew, he wrote; which arises the question who remained on the small island? Did he knew the number of the English population around 1750 was about of 2.5. million people?

The solution of this secret is easy. The British Isles, since early times always has been an immigration country. War stricken central Europe, pressed in the West by France, in the North by Sweden, in the East by Russia and all the internal struggle of the German Princes obliged their subjects to emigrate – mostly to England. Why? Was it and is it not fact that the English crown is since nearly 300 years on German heads? Alone in 1709 about 30 000 Germans invaded London, distributed in the country, mainly to Ireland and to America. As consequence, German Names, either in its original form, or Anglicized, became English surnames. To make matters worse was the diligence of the New World scribes: Was he of English descent he registered German names in English script and vice versa. True is also, as he wrote, that many English had settled in Barbados and all over the West Indies. But not only English, many Emigrants, forced by bad weather, pirates and lack of provisions did not make to the Mainland, they settled according to the given situation.

Of course this facts had and has tremendous impact on Genealogical Research. Out of many reasons this pool of similar names of uncertain origin tempts a Hobby Genealogist to use a form of a name which settles best for his purpose. And I always admire the swift lightness of conclusion of those living West,  beyond the Atlantic Ocean, down 45º Latitude.

To Gods own land with its manifested destiny, the Goads invaded from England in Mayflower time, as most Americans,  so he wrote. And here he referred to my favorite topic – names.

So, I checked on the American book: “Dictionary of American Family Names” and found the following:

Goad: probably an Americanized spelling of Gohde or Godde, variants of Gott. DAFN, Vol II, page 54

So it might be that Mr. Goad is only Saxon with ancestors from Naziland and not Anglo. And in order to prove I checked the US Census 1790 and not one Goad is listed, but many spelling variations of Gott, which is Hun, to use Goads terminology. And here I offer consolidation: a check in the telephone guides of Britain and Germany offered each 2 Goads, most possibly repatriates.

But what is the Problem? In my humble opinion Genealogical Research must be based on facts. So an American has two choices: He either checks his American descendants, which is difficult enough, due the the enormous mobility in the forming days of these proud “nations”. Or he wants to prove his European inheritance. If he is called Pizza, its easy. The research complicates if you are  for example called Lawman.

The DAFN says Lawman is Scottish and Northern Irish, a spelling variation of Lamont. I am quite sure that nobody changes his name, or accepts that his name Lamont is changed into trivial Lawman. I suspect that the specific German double vowel “au” was Americanized into “aw”. So Lawman changes to Lauman and checked on Lauman the DAFN says it is Dutch, an occupational name for a servant of somebody called Lau and as second choice the Americanized form of German Laumann. A  check in the respective telephone guides reveals 6 listings for Lauman in the Netherlands and three for Germany, all of them in the South East. Again I refer to my former observations: many Germans emigrated to the Netherlands, especially during and after the War of the Thirty Years. My own Family history gives proof.

Now we have 3 Forms of one name: Lawman, Lauman and Laumann. And there are living at least 862 families in Germany called Laumann. My lead, as a genealogist, researching Lawman would be German oriented, like in the case of Goad.

Further I bet in the first two decades of the late century, the roaring years for German-phobia in God’s own land, many Americans of German descent changed their good old name Rechtman into Lawman in order not to be persecuted and despised by their Anglo-Saxon country men.

What does this all proof? Have your own guess!