I am looking to find my familys history in germany.?

Question

My father says your last name which is Esau was origianlly form a longer german version. My grandparents changed t when they came over to canada from germany in the late 1800's early 1900's. He also says that there is a small german village that has our original last name i am hoping someone out here knows of a german village that is names somethign like Esau.

Answer 1

Sorry I do not know myself but I have many German friends I can ask and get back to you about it if none of the Natives like Hilmar, Alwin, T, or Bernd do not answer you first. Those four i know are native Germans.

I will email my other friends and see what they say and post it if none of the above have answered this question for you.

Answer 2

Esau is a first name form the Bible. I’m having problems thinking of a longer version of the name ESAU, also an extensive search on google or maps.google.de does not show any village with that name in MODERN Germany. If you have a look at the yellowpages (first link) for Esau you will find that is not a very common name at all, just about 394 have an entry with that name. looking at the postcodes of these shows that there are very centred in the north, around Dethmold.

Please remember that in 1800 the German borders where totally different and that the said village may be now somewhere in the east. Good chances are if this was a Jewish “staedchen” it may have been erased from the map by the war or that the Village was renamed later. Renaming a former German village/city happened a lot after the war, mostly in the east.

EDIT:

Hmmm looking at the Wikilink THAT may point your village into the East -> So you properly deal with a renaming, due to takeover from the Russians....get someone that can read Russia and look on Russian web pages.

Answer 3

The only Town I know off is Essen, which is in the Rhine- Palatine, Essen is pretty famous for its steel.

Elke from Germany

Answer 4

Well I can t think of any vilage with that name or something similar at first atempt but as Germany is not a small country there are many.

Do you have any information which part of Germany your family originaly comes from?

Feel free to contact me through my profile on here if you think I can be of any help.

EDIT: Something not too similar I can think of is a village in the state of Baden  Württemberg 'Hirsau' it is not too far from Stuttgart (south west of Germany)

Answer 5

I have heard about a "Rosenort Esau"..

Look here:

http://www.encyclopaedia-germanica.org/d...

http://www.encyclopaedia-germanica.org/d...