People and Names

One of the funny things about traveling in Europe, is seeing people that look or remind me of people I know back in the US. Of course because of people being transient, it is not always true to par, but often I try and guess what country someones ancestors may have been from, just from the way they look. The Nordic countries have a "look", Poland, Czeck, Turkey, German, France, England etc. do as well. When you see someone that looks "familiar" in a foreign country, it is fun to assume that the country must be some type of connection to ones ancestry.

Another thing that is funny and neat as well, is to see so many German words that are in American last names. The "dare devil" parachute guy, Baumgartner, is translated into "tree gardener". I was speaking to someone from our insurance in the U.S. on the phone the other day, and she said her last name was Scharf. She had no idea that "Scharf" means spicy in German. Often names were given based on what families did for a living - kind of cool!!!