The American Mozart's
I've been reminded recently of an interesting puzzle - one I certainly haven't been able to solve so far.
As I understand it, the last person named Mozart supposedly died in the mid 19th century. But does this mean the entire surname is extinct in German speaking lands ? Is there no 'Mozart' in the Vienna phone book and none in Germany, Austria or other place ?
This in itself is entirely possible, of course, but here comes the puzzle. In documentary records of the early United States of America we find references to people are using the surname Mozart. For example, in 1850 records from Pepperall, Middlesex, Mass. is reference to a John Mozart (born 'about 1802'. In Oregon a William Mozart is recorded as having been born in 1852 (this noted in a census made in 1870). A Marcellin Mozart (born 1832) in Louisiana records - though I think this is from a marriage licence. And even one Adelaide Mozart (born 1895 and died in
California 1979).
There are even very rare references in US records to people whose surname is 'Mozard' - a variant of the name that we see was sometimes used even in Wolfgang's lifetime.
The puzzle is whether this surname was entirely invented at the time these people or their ancestors first arrived in the USA, or whether, just maybe, they are some branch of the Mozart's we know. It would be curious for such a surname to have been invented in all the known cases since Mozart was hardly a household name in the USA during the 19th
century. It may be interesting to know if any of these people (and I understand there are some 40 or so USA references from the 19th century were all related to immigrants from either Austria or Germany who themselves used this surname.
Robert
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