HAVE GERMAN WILL TRAVEL AHNENTAFEL

GERMAN GENEALOGY FROM A TO Z

ORIGINS OF GERMAN SURNAMES

Occ.,upational names are more com­ (Schl0sser), lacemaker (Sbnur-Sclmur­ mon am0ng our @-erman ancestors than macher), cabinet-maker or joiner (Shriner­ A "Metzger" Is a in our other families. Frobab1y the Ger­ Schreiner,), stone-hewer or st0ne-cutter ."Fleischer " man respect for work accounts for this, (Stiriehow:er-Steinhauer), fowler or bird­ and 700 to 800 years ago when the name­ catcher(Vogler-Vogeler), banker or mon­ giving period occurecl, vast numbers of eylender (Wexler-Wechsler), innkeeper In Hamburg, a butcher is called "Schlach­ 0ur Germa.n progenitors took surnames (Wert-Wirr-Wurth), gate- or doorkeeper ter," in Berlin "Schlachter," but in southern from their jof>s. (Fomer-Pfortnei'), and w~elmaker (Rade­ and western Germany the same profession hl.owever, these occupationally derivea maker-Rademacher). is know as "Metzger," in central Germany surnames clo not necessadly indicate the You will find many German surnames as " Fleischer" and in the south-east as kind of work our immigrant Germanan­ prefixed by von, zu OI' am. These prefixes "Fleischhacker" or sometimes as "Sel­ cesto-rs were involved in. In other words, do not necessarily indicate a noble origin. cher," y0ur Schmidt ancestor may have been a While it is true that many of the nobility, Similarly, a plumber or tin-smith is called carpenter, not a s;mith, an,.d more likely especially in southern Germap.y, were " Klempner" in most areas but in the south, your Kauffman was 00 longer a trades­ known by their chief estate or castle, your "Spengler." man by the time lie arrived in this countr,y. Karl von Bremen could have been a Karl T here also exist various names for clean­ However, surnames can be clues to our Muller who moved from Bremen to an­ ing woman: Putzfrau, Reinmachefrau, Zu­ ancestors' long-age occupations. other locale and became known as Karl gehfrau, Perle ("gem") or, very sophisti­ Among thwe occupational names of Muller v0n Bremen. Later he may have cated, "Raumpflegerin," early Pensylvania Germans, where so shortened it to Kar.I von Bremen, The best example for differences in food many ofour ancestral lines converge, are~ Since many German ,owns and vil­ names is the roll: "Brotchen" is the most Zimmermann (carpenter), Ziegler(maRer lages have names ending in -heim (home) generally accepted term, but you also find or user of brick and tile), Schneider and -dorf (village) some of our family's "Semmel" or "Weck" (South Germany), (tailor), Schuhmacher (shoemaker), surnames may have these suffixes. "Schrippe" (Berlin), or "Rundstiick" (Ham­ Spengler (tinsmith, tinker), W agneF(wagon­ burg). mak:er), Weber (weaver), Bauer (farmer), Fischer (fisherman), Gerber (worker with learher), Jager (hunter), Metzger (butcher), Muller (miller), Schreiner (cabinetmakeF), Kramer (shopkeeper or German family names are also plentiful in the United States. There peddler), and Schultz (overseer or sherim. 0ccupati0nal names became ex­ are last names such as Klein, Myer (or Meyer, Maier, Meier), and tremely common because every village S<;hneider. Very often German family names indicate occupations had certain trades and crafts from which (Bauer, farmer), places (Berlin or Berliner, a citizen of Berlin), or physi­ people teok their sumam.es. However, cal descriptions (Kraft, strong). If you are interested in tracing the people of different vi1lages who had the origins of German family names, keep in mind that there may have same surname are not necessarily related to each other. Keep in mind that sur­ been changes-for example, Schmidt may have become Smith; Muel­ names were adopted, for the most part, in' ler may have turned into Miller. what is now Germany as eartly as 1400, Many words and phrases contributed by the German immigrants and have un ei;gone profuse spelling have become part of our everyday language-pumpernickel, noodle, changes, especially in American records. hausfrau, lager beer and bock beer, wienerwurst (often shortened to Three sutinxes which usually indicate a German name icS an occupational 0ne wiener or wienie), sauerbraten, schnitzel, dachshund, zwieback, deli­ are: -er, -hauer, and -macher. The -er suf­ catessen, kindergarten, and katzenjammer. And don't forget those fix, meaning «one who," is fo~in "typically American" foods such as hamburgers, pretzels, liverwurst, names such as Fisher (one wh0 fishes); and frankfurters with sauerkraut-all introduced by the Germans. -fiauer (meaning hewer or cutter) as in The Germans who came to the United States brought customs that Baumhaue,i; (a t,:ee chopper) and -mac her have become part of our way of life. They introduced the Christmas as in Kor.bmac11&1c (oasket-maker) or schumac~r (one who makes shoes). tree (as well as many Christmas carols), the Easter bunny and Easter Occupational-derived surnames which egg hunts, county fairs, and more recently, the folk march or were transp0rted to this country by our Volksmarsch, which has made its appearance in many communities. German ancest0rs include: baker (Bec­ And there is a long list of individual Gennans who have made ker), Miner (Bergman), forester (Fores­ invaluable con_trib~tions to this count_ry in art and music, science and ter), Carrier-carter (Furman-Fuhrmann), tanner (Gaffier-ekerher), gravedigger industry, education and politics. From John Peter Zenger (Graver-@raber), pottei: (Heffner-Hafner), to Levi Strauss, from Albert Einstein to Marlene Dietrich, herdsman (Hirt), barrel-maker or cooper German names appear throughout our history. (~eefer-Kufer), piper or fifeplayer (Pfeif­ fer~Piper), Plowmaker (Pflegar-Pfluger), sail0r (Schiffman-Shipm~?,), locksmith