Marie Regina
If there is one important thing I learned from doing my own family tree research it is this, pay attention to first names and middle names. Names give clues.
Early on in the research of my paternal side I had a lot of questions. I had no idea who my great-great grandparents were and made it my personal mission to find out. At the time, I had no idea my cousin had the answers.
In my family it was tradition to have your child’s middle name be the first name of a parent, godparent, or grandparent. I started my research with this knowledge in mind. For example, my father’s first and middle names are, John Henry. John is after his father and Henry is after his godfather.
With all this in mind I started to look at the names of my great-parents and their children. I was hoping to find a clue to who my great-great grandparents were.
The first-born to my great-grandparents was Lucas. From research that I have done about German families, I came to the conclusion that the first-born is usually named after the father of either of the parents. So, to me, that meant that Lucas was possibly the name of the my great great grandfather. Why? Well, I already knew the name of my great-grandmother’s father and it was Anton, not Lucas. So, my search for my great-great grandfather, Lucas began.
After finding Lucas as the first-born I started to look at the names of the girls. I was hoping that their names hold a clue to the name of my great-great grandmother. They were - Elizabeth Anna, Anna Regina, Marie Regina, Rose Katherine. At first glance I noticed that both Anna and Regina popped up twice. What was the significance?
After many months of confirming that the name Lucas was indeed the namesake for my great-great grandfather, I found that his wife’s name was………….Regina. I was still curious as to why the name Anna popped up a couple of times. It turns out, Anna was the mother of Regina. So, she named a couple of her daughters after her own grandmother.
So, with that being said, I’m going to explain each of the names and the significance of them.
Elizabeth Anna - Named (Elizabeth) for her maternal grandmother and (Anna) her paternal great grandmother’s name.
Anna Regina – Named (Anna) for her maternal grandmother and (Regina) maternal grandmother.
Marie Regina – Named for her mother (Marie) and (Regina) her paternal grandmother.
Rose Katherine – Named (Rose) for her maternal aunt and great-aunt and (Katherine) her paternal aunt.
I hope that my quick tutorial here helps you in your research. As I always say, pay attention to small details. You never know where they may lead you. Good Luck!
I have been researching family trees for many, many years. Over the years I have used my skills to compile many interesting family trees with pictures of family members, stories of their lives, pictures of the buildings they lived in, pictures of their headstones and so much more. There are so many different stories that can be told by the information that has been gathered.
While researching my own family tree I came upon a couple of facts that I believed family may not want known. I contemplated whether or not I should publish information that was clearly a “secret.” 
