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Author: gzimmerman9
Surnames:
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.zimmerman/1223.36.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
remember that census takers and court recorders wrote names as they heard them and as they
thought they should be written and since in the 1700's and 1800's most were
iliterate they would not know to correct these people in the correct spellings. In SC one
Zimmerman family did branch into Zimmerman line and Timmerman line due in part to the
Timmerman line settled in a more Dutch populated area and where Zimmerman would be
translated as Timmerman or Timberman. So it may not be due to the name being unpopular
but to the missunderstanding of those recording the names. It is interesting to note that
other than English most imigrants to the the colonies and what later became the United
States were German and the official language of the United States was only by the
slightest margines (one vote) was decided by the first congress to be English rather than
German.
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