My maternal grandparents immigrated to the USA from Nesvizh, Belarus. I am trying to do genealogy research about my Belarusian ancestors.
I traveled to Belarus several times to meet my grandmother's relatives many years ago. During one of my visits to Nesvizh, my relatives took me to Nesvizh Cemetery to see my great-grandfather's grave. This is my grandmother's father. I took a photo of the gravestone which I have uploaded to this post. On his gravestone the surname is written Багдевич (Bagdevich).
I have also uploaded my grandmother's passport to this post. I inherited the document from my mother. Apparently, the document is an internal passport that allowed travel to other cities, and my grandmother used it to travel to a seaport to take a ship to America. On this passport my grandmother signed her surname as Богдзевичь (Bogdzevich).
I am confused about the reason my great-grandfather uses the surname of Багдевич on his gravestone and his daughter uses the surname of Богдзевичь on her passport. Which spelling is correct. I asked my Belarusian relatives. They told me Багдевич is the Russian spelling and Богдзевичь is the Belarusian spelling. I am still confused.
Does this explanation make sense? I don't understand why the same surname is spelled differently between the Russian and Belarusian languages.
I am asking for opinions about why the surnames are different.
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Pavlik_Nesvizh_56
1 comment
In Belarusian correct is Багдзéвіч.
The spelling is different, as I understand it, because at that time Belarus was part of the Russian Empire, which is why it is written in pre-revolutionary Russian (Богдзевичь). And about the different spellings, in Belarusian “д” is always hard, so when it is followed by “е” and not “э”, it softens and becomes “дз”, and in Russian, “д” can be both soft and hard.