Could someone please please help me with research in this area?

JOANNES DEAO - Christened - 17 FEB 1809 Dom Katholisch, Mainz, Rheinhessen, Hessen

I am trying to get further information on this surname that I found on FamilySearch.org. I viewed the microfilm, and the spelling DID look like DEAO, which is extremely rare. I would like to find this person again in Germany, but I didn't know where to begin. Thank you for your help.

Kathleen DEAO

Hello Kathleen,

I've never heard of this name altough I'm from Hesse. And I checked the NARA-records and even they haven't emigrants from Germany with that name.

Is there a posibility to put a picture of this signature/entry in the records on Ancestry so that one could take a look at it?

Hi, Aron

Deao is a unique name; I've seen it hand-written in the U.S. in 1850, and it's been DEAO since then. It's the "before" that puzzles me. The microfilm is from LDS baptism records;the index was on the FamilySearch site. That is the only place that I've seen before 1850 that has the name actually written, or even typed. However, I will concede that even the handwriting could be Deau or Dean, a common error, most often transcribed in census records. I appreciate your interest; just keep your eyes open, please, and let me know if you get any other ideas. I'm beginning to think that DEAO is the END of a word, rather than a beginning . . . such as Thibodeaux, as in a French name, or other french/german words.

I'm not into latin but it could also mean something in this language as the catholics used it in German church books back than. Maybe even a connetion with "deo" as in "soli deo gloria".

Or it could be a Person from Portugal. Maybe even on a pilgrimage ...