From German to Italian

Week 15: #52 Ancestors – How Do You Spell That?

By Eilene Lyon

“How do you spell that?”

“E-I-L-E-N-E”

“That’s I-L-uh…?”

Names can be such a pain! It’s no wonder that many immigrants choose to “Americanize” theirs. I doubt that my grandma, Reatha Gusso Halse, realized that her Grandpa Charlie Gusso and his siblings changed the spelling of their last name. This is a clear-cut case in my tree where the surname was changed by the immigrant generation.

What Charlie Gusso and his brother and sisters may not have realized is that they changed their last name from a German one (or perhaps Polish, as we shall see) to an Italian one!

I earlier wrote a post about how I “reunited” Charlie and his Gusso family, with diligent research and some incredible luck. The Gusso family immigrated from Mecklenburg, in what is now northeastern Germany, on the Baltic Sea.¹

Charlie’s grandfather was Joachim Christian Gastow. Or was it Gasow? Or Gatzow? Or Gaszow? The most frequent spelling is the last one. There just happens to be a town in southwestern Poland called Gaszów. It’s entirely possible this place could be the family origin.

Joachim Christian’s daughters stayed in Germany, but both sons came to America in the 1850s: Carl and Friedrich. Carl was my ancestor, and he obtained employment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but his time there was short-lived. The 1860 census taker spelled his surname as Gazow.² After he died and his widow, Dorothea, remarried, their children were listed with the last name “Gaso.”³ (If you’re keeping track, that’s the sixth iteration.)

In 1870, Carl’s brother Frederic had his last name spelled “Kassow” by the census taker.⁴ However, other records indicate that he adopted the spelling “Gatzow.” Thanks to DNA matches, I’ve been in touch with some of Fred Gatzow’s descendants in Wisconsin. From my year of studying German, I can see how the pronunciation of Gaszow or Gatzow might sound similar to Gusso and lead to that phonetic spelling.

DNA matches on Ancestry also revealed a group of people by the surname Kussow, who seemed to be related to me on my Gusso line.

“Aha,” I thought. “I’ll bet that’s another phonetic spelling for Gaszow!”

Seemed reasonable, but it turned out to be a coincidence. There was a family connection on my Gusso/Gaszow line, though.

As more German records became indexed and available on Ancestry, I learned that Carl Gaszow’s wife, Dorothea Groth, had a half-sister, Anna Thiessen.⁵ Anna married Johann Heinrich Friedrich Kussow in Germany.⁶

In 1870, the Kussows immigrated to the US and settled in Wisconsin.⁷ That is why I have distant Kussow cousins in America. Our common ancestor is Dorothea and Anna’s mother, Sophia Dorothea Schumacher Groth Thiessen. Now close your eyes and spell all that out loud.

So where does Italy come into all this? Gusso is an uncommon surname, with only a few thousand individuals. In the Old World, the highest density is found in Italy. The largest number is found in Brazil, another nation of immigrants, like the US.⁸ Thanks to phonetics, my German ancestors wound up with an Italian name.

Feature image: Grandma Halse labeled this photo “Gusso clan.” There are quite a few Halses in there. I can pick out my dad and his brothers. Also, their Halse father and grandfather. Their grandmother, Stella (Crandall) Gusso, is second from right (my dad is next to her). I have no idea who all the other children and adults might be. (Circa 1950)