William Disselbrett came over from Germany in 1846 when he was four years old. His grandfather, J.H. Disselbrede was on that ship too. Mysteriously, J.H. also had the name Thier with his surname on the ship's records.
How does someone end up with two last names on the ship's record?
Here's how.
J.H. was baptized on January 9, 1766 as Joannes Henricus Thier in Olfen, Germany. He was the son of Joannes Bernardus Thier and Anna Gertrude Mertens.
But, in 1796, he married a woman who's father's surname was Disselbrede when she was born in 1770. His first wife's birth name was Anna Sybilla Gertrudis Disselbrede. Her father was Jodocus.
This is key: It's my strong contention that it's from Jodocus Henrich Disselbrede that the name Disselbrede first came into this family.
In the Westfalen part of Germany at this time, a man would take on the last name of his father-in-law in order to carry on the family name associated with a family farm. J.H. Thier was a farmer so this seems likely what happened that brought J.H. Thier to start answering, interchangeably, with the name Disselbrede.
The twists aren't done yet though.
Anna Sybilla Gertrudis Disselbrede was J.H. Thiers first wife. She wasn't our hero William Disselbrett's grandmother though. Plus, there's this Langerman thing.
Part Five explains these twists within the twists.
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UPDATE: I found this brief explanation of the pattern of name changing on Ancestry.com. It reads, "When the common lands were divided and farms were installed here in Prussia, the name and the house # became a part of the farm. That means when the heir was a wife, her husband had to take over her name at the moment of the marriage. This law was in function until about 1825 and when the father-in-law was very conservative, he took care that this later was also used until about 1840 to 1850."
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