
Name caution — do not merge with Henry Guldan
This wiki already resolved a name-confusion case involving Henry Guldan, East Dundee's police officer through the late 1880s–1890s, whose name was misread as "H. Gerdan" in one 1888 ledger transcription before being corrected via `docs/name-spelling-register.md`. "Gerdau" (this page) is a third, visually similar surname to both "Guldan" and the corrected misreading "Gerdan." Per the register's own guidance ("two similar names may be two different people, not one misspelled person"), treat Henry Gerdau as a distinct individual unless and until direct evidence ties him to the Guldan family. A "Gerdau" surname also appears among the named students in the 1940 Dundee School class photo documented on the Heiden Family page — worth checking whether that's the same family, a generation later.
Sources
- resident-photo-submission-2026-08-18 — Collected by a resident, sourced from FRVPL and Ancestry.com. Uploaded to Supabase Storage 2026-08-18.