linking Francis J. Baker to his parents, I offer the following information. Note that I do not have any official documentation, but I am working from a massive family tree that was printed in 1999 and supports my requests.
Elizabeth Dietrich Becker (#94310952) was my great-great-great-grandfather Martin Dietrich's niece. According to the family tree, she married a John Baker, who was born 3/06/1841 in Germany and died 2/13/1922, buried in the Saint Lawrence church cemetery in Saint Lawrence, PA. A search of Find A Grave revealed only one individual who matches all of this data, except in one regard - the last name is displayed as Becker instead of Baker, and the headstone pictured clearly has the last name as Becker. In addition to a photo of the headstone, someone also attached a scan of this gentleman's obituary, which displays the last name as Baker. Furthermore, the obituary corroborates all of the information in my family tree regarding the children of John Becker/Baker, including Francis J., who is noted simply as F. J. in the obituary. Since all of the other information from my family tree matches, except for the spelling of the last name, I believe it is 100% correct to presume that, for some reason, most of the children of John and Elizabeth changed the spelling of their last name to Baker. I have only found one exception, their son Max Charles (#90074620, listed in the obituary as M. C. of Pittsburg), who retained the last name of Becker.
As I noted above, I don't have any specific documentation to verify or explain the spelling change of the last name, and I am not able to verify how my family tree was assembled. All I can say is that, with every other piece of data for John and Elizabeth Dietrich Becker exactly matching the family tree, it wasn't much of a stretch for me to assume that the spelling of the last name was changed at some point over the course of the two generations. The same situation has occurred numerous times with the Dietrich family. My family name (my mother's maiden name) is actually Dithrich - some of the cousins who descended from Martin Dietrich decided to change the spelling several generations ago. In the era before reliable record keeping and when language barriers often existed, I don't think this was very unusual.
contributor Kevin Cecotti #50502909
Elizabeth Dietrich Becker (#94310952) was my great-great-great-grandfather Martin Dietrich's niece. According to the family tree, she married a John Baker, who was born 3/06/1841 in Germany and died 2/13/1922, buried in the Saint Lawrence church cemetery in Saint Lawrence, PA. A search of Find A Grave revealed only one individual who matches all of this data, except in one regard - the last name is displayed as Becker instead of Baker, and the headstone pictured clearly has the last name as Becker. In addition to a photo of the headstone, someone also attached a scan of this gentleman's obituary, which displays the last name as Baker. Furthermore, the obituary corroborates all of the information in my family tree regarding the children of John Becker/Baker, including Francis J., who is noted simply as F. J. in the obituary. Since all of the other information from my family tree matches, except for the spelling of the last name, I believe it is 100% correct to presume that, for some reason, most of the children of John and Elizabeth changed the spelling of their last name to Baker. I have only found one exception, their son Max Charles (#90074620, listed in the obituary as M. C. of Pittsburg), who retained the last name of Becker.
As I noted above, I don't have any specific documentation to verify or explain the spelling change of the last name, and I am not able to verify how my family tree was assembled. All I can say is that, with every other piece of data for John and Elizabeth Dietrich Becker exactly matching the family tree, it wasn't much of a stretch for me to assume that the spelling of the last name was changed at some point over the course of the two generations. The same situation has occurred numerous times with the Dietrich family. My family name (my mother's maiden name) is actually Dithrich - some of the cousins who descended from Martin Dietrich decided to change the spelling several generations ago. In the era before reliable record keeping and when language barriers often existed, I don't think this was very unusual.
contributor Kevin Cecotti #50502909
linking Francis J. Baker to his parents, I offer the following information. Note that I do not have any official documentation, but I am working from a massive family tree that was printed in 1999 and supports my requests.
Elizabeth Dietrich Becker (#94310952) was my great-great-great-grandfather Martin Dietrich's niece. According to the family tree, she married a John Baker, who was born 3/06/1841 in Germany and died 2/13/1922, buried in the Saint Lawrence church cemetery in Saint Lawrence, PA. A search of Find A Grave revealed only one individual who matches all of this data, except in one regard - the last name is displayed as Becker instead of Baker, and the headstone pictured clearly has the last name as Becker. In addition to a photo of the headstone, someone also attached a scan of this gentleman's obituary, which displays the last name as Baker. Furthermore, the obituary corroborates all of the information in my family tree regarding the children of John Becker/Baker, including Francis J., who is noted simply as F. J. in the obituary. Since all of the other information from my family tree matches, except for the spelling of the last name, I believe it is 100% correct to presume that, for some reason, most of the children of John and Elizabeth changed the spelling of their last name to Baker. I have only found one exception, their son Max Charles (#90074620, listed in the obituary as M. C. of Pittsburg), who retained the last name of Becker.
As I noted above, I don't have any specific documentation to verify or explain the spelling change of the last name, and I am not able to verify how my family tree was assembled. All I can say is that, with every other piece of data for John and Elizabeth Dietrich Becker exactly matching the family tree, it wasn't much of a stretch for me to assume that the spelling of the last name was changed at some point over the course of the two generations. The same situation has occurred numerous times with the Dietrich family. My family name (my mother's maiden name) is actually Dithrich - some of the cousins who descended from Martin Dietrich decided to change the spelling several generations ago. In the era before reliable record keeping and when language barriers often existed, I don't think this was very unusual.
contributor Kevin Cecotti #50502909
Elizabeth Dietrich Becker (#94310952) was my great-great-great-grandfather Martin Dietrich's niece. According to the family tree, she married a John Baker, who was born 3/06/1841 in Germany and died 2/13/1922, buried in the Saint Lawrence church cemetery in Saint Lawrence, PA. A search of Find A Grave revealed only one individual who matches all of this data, except in one regard - the last name is displayed as Becker instead of Baker, and the headstone pictured clearly has the last name as Becker. In addition to a photo of the headstone, someone also attached a scan of this gentleman's obituary, which displays the last name as Baker. Furthermore, the obituary corroborates all of the information in my family tree regarding the children of John Becker/Baker, including Francis J., who is noted simply as F. J. in the obituary. Since all of the other information from my family tree matches, except for the spelling of the last name, I believe it is 100% correct to presume that, for some reason, most of the children of John and Elizabeth changed the spelling of their last name to Baker. I have only found one exception, their son Max Charles (#90074620, listed in the obituary as M. C. of Pittsburg), who retained the last name of Becker.
As I noted above, I don't have any specific documentation to verify or explain the spelling change of the last name, and I am not able to verify how my family tree was assembled. All I can say is that, with every other piece of data for John and Elizabeth Dietrich Becker exactly matching the family tree, it wasn't much of a stretch for me to assume that the spelling of the last name was changed at some point over the course of the two generations. The same situation has occurred numerous times with the Dietrich family. My family name (my mother's maiden name) is actually Dithrich - some of the cousins who descended from Martin Dietrich decided to change the spelling several generations ago. In the era before reliable record keeping and when language barriers often existed, I don't think this was very unusual.
contributor Kevin Cecotti #50502909
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