There is alot of new information in this thread, for instance:
... She was born in Chicago on January 12, 1942. Her father, then Bernard Ohrnstein, was Jewish and changed the family name to Dohrn when Bernardine was in high school...
Why did they change their name? Why Dohrn? WHo else do we know that changed names? Did she ever use her original family name after dad changed it? Are there any links with others using that name?
. . . . Begin at # 52 and read to end of the thread - must be important, SP's are here.
[To The Ping List: - thanks for all the pings, and excellent research. Y'all are wonderful, and FR is fortunate you are posting on this site.]
Linking this thread to "The Long Thread".
( I'll be offline the rest of the day.)
Why Dohrn? It was not uncommon for American Jews (and others, such as Italian Americans or Polish Americans) to change their family names so as to make them less ethnic sounding and usually shorter. In many instances, this was done to mitigate prejudice and discrimination against them in the work place. Not usually anything sinister, like taking on a completely new identity might be.
In the case of the change from "Ohrnstein" (a recognizable Jewish name) to "Dohrn" (kind of German sounding), they took the OHRN from "Ohrnstein" and stuck a "D" in front of it. Why did they stick in a "D"? It's only a guess, but "d'" before a word or a name beginning with a vowel means "of" or "from" in French or Italian. Thus the new name would literally mean "from Ohrn." Again, in most instances, you can't infer anything sinister from that alone.