Strange name. (Maybe not strange for us Corkonians!)

BionicRasher

Just found a 2nd great uncle.
First name is Langer. It seems to be accurate as it's on birth certificate and military records.


Anyone else come across this?

tabbey

BionicRasher wrote: »

Just found a 2nd great uncle.
First name is Langer. It seems to be accurate as it's on birth certificate and military records.


Anyone else come across this?

It sounds German.
There was a golfer, I think, called Bernhard Langer.

pinkypinky

Maybe your uncle was the inspiration behind the modern usage.

tac foley

It's German, Danish and Dutch, and means a tall person, back when names were given for physical attributes.

A friend of mine in NI has the surname Shafer, a corruption of German name Schaeffer [Shepherd/shepherd]. He has no idea where his great-grandfather came from though. Possibly a WW1 POW stay-behind?

tac

BionicRasher

It's not a surname it's his first name.
Langer Cummins.
http://www.everymanremembered.org/profiles/soldier/694784/

tabbey

BionicRasher wrote: »

It's not a surname it's his first name.
Langer Cummins.
http://www.everymanremembered.org/profiles/soldier/694784/

Perhaps it was a mistranscription of Lancer.

BionicRasher

seems there is a note next to the entry on birth record

Cant make out exactly what is says but it looks like his name is indeed Langer.

Its also in all his military records that I have found

tabbey

The nickname must have slipped out when informing the registrar.

The informant was Dorcas Nettles, presumably the one born 1815, possibly illiterate.

Present at birth often means one of those charwomen masquerading as midwives, commonly used by the middle classes.

As Langer's father was a printer, the elite of tradesmen, he could afford such a person to assist his wife in her confinement.

tabbey

The note on the left is signed by the Superintendent Registrar, - column 3, read Lange.. .
He probably thought it should be something else, but he did not draw a circle around it, which they usually did when finding an error.

pedroeibar1

There are a few forename ‘Langers’ in the 1901 and 1911 censuses.
The Corkmen of that variety are more correctly Langurs, a word brought home to Cork (much later than 1812) by the Munster Fusiliers. Named for the ape famous for its bad behaviour and a very long tail, that attribute and appendage made their way into the Cork slang used by the Boys of Fair Hill.

kildarejohn

BionicRasher wrote: »

seems there is a note next to the entry on birth record

Cant make out exactly what is says but it looks like his name is indeed Langer.

Its also in all his military records that I have found

Looking at the handwriting in the register and comparing the "n" in "Langer" versus all the other n's on the page - all other n's are correctly and carefully written, not like this one; it looks to me as if the n in "Langer" is in fact meant to be a u.
Could the registrar have written Laugn in mistake for Lauglhin/Loughlin

spurious

Can't say I'd ever come across it before, but if you do a search on Ancestry, using just Langer as a first name, he's not the only one.

tanoralover

tabbey wrote: »

The informant was Dorcas Nettles, presumably the one born 1815, possibly illiterate.

Present at birth often means one of those charwomen masquerading as midwives, commonly used by the middle classes.

As Langer's father was a printer, the elite of tradesmen, he could afford such a person to assist his wife in her confinement.

Langer had a sister called Dorcas Cummins (1879-1890) and Langer's mother registered Dorcas Nettles death.