Naming Patterns: Victoria Prosser

Family naming patterns give us a deep-rooted sense of tradition and family bonding. Victoria Prosser (daughter of Joseph Prosser and Brigitta Winkler) was born in 1856.¹Czech Republic, Svitavy, Třebařov, Třebařov, church records, 1770-1909 Births, M14-7552, 1870-1904, FHL005054196,_image 154. Viktoria Prosser baptism 27 November 1856. Yes, the baptism record (shown below) spells her name as Viktoria and the German pronunciation would be fick-TOR-iah. See this post for a discussion of the details contained in this record.

She married John Blees in Great Bend, Kansas in 1887.²Blees-Possey Marriage License, August 8, 1887. Barton County Marriage Book B, page 104. Great Bend, Kansas. Research into Victoria’s lineage shows that she was not the first of that name, nor was she the last. For the sake of clarity, I will refer to this Victoria as Victoria1 and label all other Victoria’s as they relate to her.

Victoria1 had an older sister named Viktoria. This sister was born 13 Dec 1852³1852_ProsserBaptism_FHL005054196_image 145, Kleintriebendorf and died 13 months (one year and 22 days) later of a high fever.⁴1854_ProsserViktoriaDeath_FHLfilm005069366_image131_House44, Kleintriebendorf In Germanic naming traditions, families commonly reused names after the death of a child.

Victoria1 had a paternal aunt, her father’s younger sister, named Viktoria. This Viktoria lived for only eight days in 1833. She died when her brother, Joseph Prosser (father of Victoria1) was just five years old.⁵1833_ProsserVictoriaDeath_FHL_ 005069366_image_103_House44, Kleintriebendorf

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Victoria1 also had a maternal aunt named Viktoria: Viktoria Winkler was born in 1817.⁶1817_WinklerViktoriaBaptism_FHL5069364_image07_House37 This 1842 marriage records shows Viktoria married to Johann Prosser (son of Franz Prosser),⁷1842_ProsserWinklerMarriage_FHL_5069367_image019, Großtriebendorf who was a first cousin to Victoria1’s father Joseph.

Let’s look at one more piece of information from these four records: house numbers. Victoria1 lived at Number 44 (just left of her name) when she was born. The two young Viktorias lived and died at House Number 44 (second column from the left). The marriage record shows that Johann Prosser lived at Number 42 and Viktoria Winkler lived at Number 38 (the numbers just before their names). These Viktorias were not only closely related, but they also lived very near one another.

What research is next?

Did Victoria1 have cousins that also immigrated to America?
How does the name Victoria live on?
What other names shall we look at?

SOURCES

• 1
  Czech Republic, Svitavy, Třebařov, Třebařov, church records, 1770-1909 Births, M14-7552, 1870-1904, FHL005054196,_image 154. Viktoria Prosser baptism 27 November 1856.
• 2
  Blees-Possey Marriage License, August 8, 1887. Barton County Marriage Book B, page 104. Great Bend, Kansas.
• 3
  1852_ProsserBaptism_FHL005054196_image 145, Kleintriebendorf
• 4
  1854_ProsserViktoriaDeath_FHLfilm005069366_image131_House44, Kleintriebendorf
• 5
  1833_ProsserVictoriaDeath_FHL_ 005069366_image_103_House44, Kleintriebendorf
• 6
  1817_WinklerViktoriaBaptism_FHL5069364_image07_House37
• 7
  1842_ProsserWinklerMarriage_FHL_5069367_image019, Großtriebendorf