LL-L "Help needed" 2002.08.04 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Thomas <t.mcrae at uq.net.au>
Subject: Query re Word

A friend found the word  "THNENTAFEL" at the head of a Scottish Family
Tree.
Can anybody help wuith the origin and meaning please ?
Regards
Tom
Tom Mc Rae PSOC
Brisbane Australia
"The masonnis suld mak housis stark and rude,
To keep the pepill frome the stormes strang,
And he that fals, the craft it gois all wrang."
>>From 15th century Scots Poem 'The Buke of the Chess'

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Help needed

Hi, Tom!

My guess is that the first letter has been misread, should be "A", and
that the word is _Ahnentafel_, which is German for "genealogical table"
or, more literally, "table of ancestors."

Why a Scottish family would use this word I do not know, unless there
was a German connection (and the whole table was in German), or ... it
was a loaned term that once was fashionable.  If the latter is the case,
it most probably fell out of favor at the latest with World War II. Even
I, born after WW II, still can't help having a slight shiver running
down my spine at the sound/look of the (inherently harmless) word
because of its prominence during and thus association with the Nazi
period when you had to provide an _Ahnentafel_ before you were allowed
to do this, that and the other, for instance to be employed, join a
club, (at least in cases of "suspicious" names) to marry, or ... simply
to be allowed to live ...

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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