The Curious Case of Lina, Pauline, Lena, Helena, Helen—and Augusta

What’s In a Name? One Woman, Seven Names, and a Trail of Confusing Records

Today I want to introduce you to Fred Hostetter’s younger sister, the second child of Eva Bergmann and Frederick Hostetter.

To a genealogist, she is a puzzle wrapped in a mystery and surrounded by a fairly impressive amount of fog.

Why? Because we are not entirely sure what her name was.

And I’m not talking about a simple nickname, alternate spelling, or married name. This poor little girl seems to have collected names almost from birth.

Lina, Pauline, or Lena?

Her birth record says Lina.

Her baptismal record says Pauline.

The 1905 census calls her Lena.

At about this point, I stopped looking for Fred’s sister and started looking for someone to blame.

Her parents seemed like reasonable suspects.

Apparently, naming this child was less of a decision and more of an ongoing family project.

Name changes themselves are nothing unusual. I changed my surname when I married, and I have had things in both my legal name, Christine, and my nickname, Tina. People shorten names, change names, use middle names, adopt confirmation names, remarry, or simply decide they like something better.

But this little gal seems to have started experimenting before she was old enough to sit up.

Kerri recently acquired her birth record from the New Jersey State Archives, and the handwriting appears to read Lina. At first glance it might look like Tina, but Lina makes much more sense.

Then, while wandering through Ancestry, I came across another Hostetter child born in Jersey City whose name did not ring any bells at all.

Pauline.

Same family. Same little girl. Or at least, we believe so because the dates match.

By the 1905 census, Pauline-Lina had become Lena.

And then things got even more interesting.

A New Name Appears

At about age 18, she appears to have converted to Catholicism, possibly in preparation for marriage into a Catholic family. On May 8, 1909, she was baptized at St. Patrick’s Church in Jersey City.

This time she was recorded as:

Helena Eleanor Jenners.

Her parents were listed as Frederick Hostetter and Helen Bergman.

So now our Lina/Lena/Pauline had become Helena Eleanor—and had apparently acquired the surname Jenners as well.

There is just one small problem.

We have not yet found any evidence that she actually married anyone named Jenners.

Genealogy likes to keep us humble.

Marriage, Mystery, and More Confusion

Then, on April 15, 1915, she married Gustave O. Thune.

And because apparently this story had not yet supplied enough drama, just two days later, on April 17, the local newspaper reported that her brand-new husband had been arrested for possession of heroin.

That is one way to begin married life.

Not exactly the sort of honeymoon announcement one hopes to clip for the family scrapbook.

In the 1915 New Jersey census, Mrs. Thune was still being called Helen.

Finally, I thought.

She found a name that stuck.

The 1920 census said, essentially, “Not so fast.”

On January 15, 1920, living on Siedler Street in Jersey City with her father Frederick Hostetter, she was recorded by the census taker as Augusta Tehune.

The handwriting is dreadful, the surname is mangled, and Augusta appears from nowhere.

But the dates match.

At this point I have decided that the census taker deserves at least partial responsibility.

She was listed as widowed and working as an elevator operator in an office building.

Helen at Last?

By 1930, sanity had returned.

Helen Thune, daughter of Frederick Hostetter, was living at 688 Summit Avenue in Jersey City. She was about 40 years old and working as a bookkeeper in an office. She was recorded as married, although her husband was apparently living separately in a boarding house on Communipaw Avenue.

The 1940 census again records Helen Thune, now widowed and working as an elevator operator in an office building.

Her death record also gives her name as Helen Thune, although her birth date appears to be off by about seven years. At the time of her death, Helen was 50 years old and still working as an elevator operator.

So after all of that, we seem to end where she herself eventually settled:

Helen Thune.

But along the way, the records gave us:

Lina
Lena
Pauline
Helena
Helen
Augusta
Eleanor

And, for good measure, Jenners and Thune.

So What Was Her Name?

Most ancestors leave us wondering where they lived, what they did, or who their parents were.

This one left us asking a much more basic question:

“Excuse me, ma’am… what exactly should we call you?”

For me, I try to stick to what the birth certificate says, so for me she is Lena.

But I have to admit, Lina/Lena/Pauline/Helena/Helen/Augusta/Eleanor Hostetter Thune is much harder to forget.

Birth Name – Lina Hostetter

Born: 18 May 1890 • Bayonne, Hudson, New Jersey

Died: 21 April 1941 • Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey
Burial: at New York Bay Cemetery.

Parents: Eva Bergmann and Frederick Hostetter

Spouse: Possible Mr. Jenners (read below) and Gus Thune (1894-1936).

Married Gustaf Thune April 15,1909 with ceremony officiated by Mark M. Fagan, Mayor of Jersey City.

Children: no children that we know of.