Surname

Time changes and alters us, our landscape, how we use words, the meaning of words, and how we spell.  Do we, today, also tend to place more emphasis on a name than in times past?   The spelling of my surname has changed, and records indicate that my great grandfather and his brothers did not choose a consistent spelling of the last name.  Many years ago, prior to the industrial revolution, most persons were farmers, followed by craftspeople, and shop keepers.  For many, their last name may represent an ancestor's occupation--Smith became short for blacksmith, as an example.  Given the common nature of the last name Smith, there must have been a great number of blacksmiths.  Surnames started becoming more common in 14th and 15th centuries, although the Romans seemed to always have two or three names (think Gaius Julius Caesar).   This post is about the Hovel surname.  A September 26, 2017 post on this blog discussed the pronunciation and presence of the V in the name.

Simon Hawel marriage record, 1703
Source:  https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz  Lhenice, book 1 image 103

Hovel in English refers to a small shanty, or dirty house.  There are Hovels from England, and their last name may hearken back to a prior residence in their homeland. However, my surname is an Americanized version of the Czech surname Havel.  As in Vaclav Havel.  In old-country records, however, it is often spelled with a "W" in place of the "V";  the W apparently being due to Germanic influence.  In 1526 the Kingdom of Bohemia came under the rule of the Hapsburg Empire, which later became the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  German is a key language for that Empire, and hence even though some historic Bohemian records are in Czech (other languages used are Latin and German), the W is influenced by the German language.  Use of W in lieu of V is also applied to the spelling of the name of a village.  Like English names, Czech last names may relate to occupation, or social status.  For example the surname, Dvorak, as in the composer Antonin, means a free person who owns land.  The Havel surname for Czech's has a more elegant meaning than the English name Hovel.  The Havel name recognizes St. Gall, who was one of the companions of St. Columbanus (both of Irish descent) who re-educated the continent of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Martin Hawel (Hovel) baptismal record
Source:  https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz,  Netolice book 31, image 25

The earliest record that I have located to date for my ancestors is the sacramental marriage record dating from 1703 for my 6th great grandfather Simon Hawel from Ratiborova Lhotka.  Simon married Elizabetha Pesek (perhaps a small v symbol above the S) probably from from Vrbice (Wrbice in the record).  All of the Czech records I have located consistently use Hawel as spelling of the last name.  My great great grandfather Josef migrated to the US in 1868 with his wife and eight surviving children. Having located copies of baptismal records for all of Josef's offspring but for the youngest, Wenzel (his baptismal certificate will not be available on-line until probably after 2049), they all use Hawel.  This continues the spelling as it was generations earlier.  The passenger log on the immigrant ship, uses this surname.   Of the children who arrived with Josef and Anna Hawel on US soil on a mid-July day in 1868 four were male and four were female.  The four females would all marry and take the name of their spouse. For the four males, the last name would be a different story.

Joseph Hawel Declaration for Citizenship
source:  UW-Whitewater archives

Let us take a look at the historical record, and see what it provides relative to the spelling of the last name.  When Josef, the patriarch of the family passed away in 1882 he was buried at Oakwood Bohemian Cemetery near Plymouth, Iowa; Josef may have been one of the first burials in that cemetery as it was created that year. While  his, and his wife's, tombstone use the last name of  Hawel, his Declaration of Citizenship in 1869 has his name, and his signature reading Havel.(Although it appears he was unsure of how to spell the name in English as he overwrote a "b" as the middle letter with a "v".)  His son John was one of the founding members of the Bohemian Cemetery Association.  John Hovel, the eldest child, had varied records. John would die in a tragic accident in June 1905.   A story on the Bohemian Cemetery (1982) provides "...Hovel (Havel)" leading me to think the name in the record is Havel, but the article provides the more common accepted spelling meaning it is the same as Havel in the original record.  News articles on his death, as well as his grave maker in the Bohemian Cemetery use Havel.  John's wife, Margaret is buried in Osage, IA under the name Hovel.  I have not located an obituary of the oldest daughter Anna, who died in 1910 so I cannot track what name may have been provided as a maiden name.

"Baltimore" Ship Manifest
Source:  Wisconsin Historical Society

Martin, my great grandfather, saw Habel used in his 1877 Wisconsin marriage license (probably as written by the county clerk), but used Hovel in his will (1919),  and on his tombstone (1928).  A 1915 Iowa census record uses Havel.  Yet, more importantly, a prayer book (written in German) he once owned has his signature as "Martin Hovel."  Of course it is unknown when he signed the book.  Interestingly, his Son John would, at the urging of his wife, who thought the name too short, add a second L.  John's sister Marie Hovel would die at a relatively young age in 1896.  Her grave marker Identifies her as Mary Hawel, spouse of Anton Hofmeister.  She too is buried in the Bohemian Cemetery.  A brother of Martin, Joseph D Havel would use the Havel spelling.  This spelling of the last name was in his death record, and in news articles on his death.  That spelling is also prevalent in ads for one of his business ventures.  JD had two sons and a daughter. His oldest son is (so far, anyway) lost to history.  The other, Rufus, died near age 90, but had no children.   He used the last name of his father, as one would expect--Havel.  Rose Kachel, the only Hovel child to remain in Wisconsin, would have the original Hawel spelling appear in her obituary.  Katherine Popp, the second youngest would be the one family member to outlive all her siblings.  Her May 1944 obituary identifies her as a Hovel.

Martin and Amelia Hovel main grave monument
Source:  Iowa grave records 

The youngest child of Josef and Anna, Wenzel, who was nine months old upon his arrival on the shores of Baltimore, died in the first month of January 1944.  His death certificate would use the original version of the last name--Hawel (Germanic version of Czech).  He would, however, use a first name of Howard, rather than his baptized name Wenzel.  He deferred from use of his given name, which definitely sounds Bohemian, for a more common English name, Howard.  But, he chose to keep the original surname--Hawel, rather than an Americanized version--Hovel, or even Havel.  Wenzel had a large family, but all daughters, so his surname did not pass to a future generation.

Rudolph Hovel WWI Draft Card
Source: Familysearch

It seems that perhaps after the death of Joseph, the common accepted spelling for the John Hovel side, and the Martin Hovel side was to use Hovel (with John J adding another L), and not Havel.  However, whether or not Joseph D's horrendous act in March 1907 led to the name change I do not know.  It may simply have been a desire to Americanize the name during a time of continued anti-Catholic bias in the nation.  On my mother's paternal side, the Mc in McSweeney was dropped as the family arrived in the United States in order, according to family lore, to mitigate the Irish nature of the name.  Father Joseph Reiner would convince my mother's mother's family to drop the Ei, as in Eireiner, for simply Reiner.  What mother could say no to her Jesuit priest son?  She was so proud of her son, that it is said, she would refer to him as Father Reiner?

Martin and Amelia Hovel
Source:  Michael J. Hovel

The surname is our identifier.  Yet, the surname did not come from an occupation as did many others, but was in recognition of St Gall.  The question is why did a family or family members choose a last name to recognize St. Gall?  To that I do not have an answer.  Who we are is in our personality.  Personality is formed by environment, and partially by the genes we inherited, a collection of genes that goes back much longer than the 1703 marriage record of Simon Hawel to Elizabeth Pesek.  This brief post is a look into our past.  The last name was stable in its spelling for many generations, but within about 40 years of after arrival in the United States even brothers could not agree on which spelling to retain for the surname.  History is full of unique stories, and this is but another story in the history of the Hovel (Havel, Hawel) family.