| Title: | BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest |
| Notice: | 1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration |
| Moderator: | SMURF::FENSTER |
| Created: | Mon Feb 03 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1524 |
| Total number of notes: | 18709 |
I am curious about the development of modern Jewish family names.
My understanding was that some time during the 15th/16th centuries,
it was decreed in many European countries that everyone had to have
a family name - for a price, of course, if you didn't have one. This
was also a revenue-enhancing move by the various governments because
they knew Jews did not have family names and so were charged premium
rates.
Often the family names chosen reflected a trade or occupation or
were taken from various feudal lords who ruled in a particular area.
As it turns out, that is what happened in my family in and around
Zutphen, Holland (not far from Germany). The result is I don't really
know who my family members were - they just took the name of a local
landowner.
Although I have not yet definitively established any Jewish roots yet
in my family, I was under the impression that only Jews did not
have family names (in the European sense). Is that a correct assumption
or at one time did this apply to everybody.
This may belong also in the GENEALOGY notesfile but I thought I
would start here.
Thanks.
Mark
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 861.1 | A follow-up | DOCSRV::STARIN | My other ham shack is a Gooneybird | Tue Jan 02 1990 14:22 | 12 |
Also, since I don't have ready access to an Encyclopedia Judaica,
does anyone know when Jews were allowed to own property (like land)
in Holland? Could they have been landowner's at all in say the 17th
century?
I'm pretty sure 17th century Holland was quite enlightened for its day
but I vaguely remember reading that such reforms did not occur there
until the late 18th or early 19th century but I may be wrong.
Thanks.
Mark
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| 861.2 | Dark corners of my memory...:-) | SUTRA::LEHKY | I'm phlegmatic, and that's cool. | Thu Jan 04 1990 06:07 | 14 |
Family names were uncommon in Germany and Austria, for a long time.
When they were introduced, many people chose the description of their
activity (Fischer, M�ller, Schmied, B�cker, Wirt, Bauer, etc...), their
origin (Wiener, Prager, Neudorfer, etc...), or a physical particularity
(Sch�n, Klein, Lang, Kurz, etc...), or a tool, or, or, or...
Jews in Austria were told (not too sure about all details, but that's
the main idea) to use plant and a set of other names or combinations
thereof, hence the "typical" Jewish names in Austria, and elsewhere
(Rosenzweig, Blum, Mandel, Mandelbaum, Rosenblatt, Stock, etc...).
Historically yours,
Chris
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