Thank you again. A German lady gave a presentation at our genealogy meeting about two months ago about the rules that prevailed, when the s became double s, etc. I guess the generalization is that one consider all possibilities, and just be aware of the different symbols for s or esset, etc. It's sort of like my Hruskas being Hrusska in the old spellings.

Coufal seemed to have been Czaufal, Zaufal, Czoufal, Čoufal, and finally, Coufal. And then there's the first names. Latin: Joannes. German: Johann. Czech: Jan. And that's the easy one. As I learned from you, Vavrinec is Laurentius, and I have no idea what it is in German. Ludwig? Louis is Ludovico in Latin, Alois in Czech. At least in my family. In my home parish in Kansas, one day I needed 4 languages. The German priest would translate the English or Czech or Hungarian mentally into German, then into Latin. I had to be able to trace his logic. But when they recorded my grandfather Vaclav Sramek as Jakob, that was a surprise. Someone said that many Vaclavs went by the name James, and that Jacob was Latin for James.

Again, thanks.