Charlemagne - This is a general question (not about Charlemagne) about prepositions in titles

I know this is about Charlemagne, but I was always curious why my Ukrainian grandfather always had the word Von before his name. So, the name is as presented as Jozef Marion Von Jurkiewicz and his family were from Buczacz (Ternopil oblast) B. 1883, immigrated to NY 1906, never got a SS card and was a horse trainer. D. 1952 Miami Fla.

Yoda,
Short answer, depending on the era and language: No. But maybe we can improve things. I confess I have not been toggling the language option when entering German names. I do try to enter as many akas as I can to assist people in following up the profiles I create.
Easy ones first. Herr is simply Mr. and as such is unnecessary. (in my opinion.) Graf verses Graaf (and subsequent preps) is simply High German verses Dutch. Both are variations on duke, count or lord. As most of these titles are self proclaimed, your point is very valid. The first problem I think of is "am" or "an der". A simple example: Oetwil Am See and Oetwil an der Limmat are not the same town. Both towns existed in the 9th century.
At this point I find correcting titles to just one language at a time is tedious enough. Perhaps we can start there. The multiplicity of languages is not without reason. Many of these people communicated in multiple languages.
And then there is location. Current name or what it was then?
Suggestions?
Morgan Maddox

"For "Herzog", I've seen "von", "zur", "zu", "der", and for "Hertog", I've seen "van" ("aan" seems to be a proper translation of "zu"). For "Graf", I've seen "von", "im", "zu", and for "Graaf" I've seen "van", "in". For "Herr", I've seen "von", "zur". In some Dutch profiles, I've seen "aan der", and there are probably more out there that I have forgotten about."
These parts are sadly not interchangable and it isn't possible to just take one standard: they are part of the title/name and as such are specific for that combination of title and name (although sometimes more than one form is used). It is probably best to leave up to managers that understand that language to determine what the correct name is in that language.

Charlemagne is my 29th great grandfather.

Sharon Doubell, it seems that a lot of the original documentation comes from charters that were written in Latin, so who knows? Also, the modern languages were a little different during the Middle Ages (with a really big change in England after Guilaume and his 21, of which 13 are my ancestors :), conquering compagnons), and of course, there was a steady evolution from the original regional languages of France (which Geni seems to do a very good job of capturing, although I wonder how the transition from Breton to French in Brittany actually happened). How do we really know if someone was known as Herzog von Bayern, Herzog zu Bayern, or maybe even Herzog der Beieren (I had read somewhere that dukes of any area that was named for an ethnic tribe uses the "of the tribesman" syntax)..

Morgan Maddox, I think we have to consider the possibility that whoever had first documented these folks in the vernacular (as opposed to Latin) did it improperly. I think it would be better to come up with a standard.

Margaret Love Boehning, it's probably because your Ukrainian grandfather came from the far western part of present Ukraine, which was ruled by Austria-Hungary around that time.

Thank you

I wonder if Wikipedia, in the native language of the person's title could be trusted to have the proper title. Anyone that is a count or higher probably has such an article. Speaking of Geni, is this oldest written source listed anywhere?

Charlemagne is your 33rd great grandfather.

Job, I list ALL titles, choosing what I consider the "native language" of the region that the title is for. This means some tough decisions for Alsace-Lorraine and Belgium, and for anyone who was from one region but moved to another for the job; I try to guess what language-ethnicity that person considered xerself as, and generally have children of a mixed language couple conform to the language of the inherited title (which is typically from the father, but sometimes from the mother). I list all the various regnal numbers (which can be different from different sources).