Is this last name German ??

Question

Holtz

found this last name in my mothers side of the family she was astrainged so i didnt get to know much about her or her family until after she passed on from liver disease and liver failure 2 months ago an i am left with her belongings an she has a huge family tree going back from the 19th century ! i found the name Holtz i new my mother was mostly french so french last names are everywhere but i found this name her mothers mom my great grandmother's maiden name was this ?? im thinking its german any ideas

Answer 1

If you know who the football coach Lou Holtz is you'll know he is of German descent

Answer 2

Holtz is effectively Germanic, In your case, your ancestor may be Alsatian, A refugee from the French province of Alsace when it was annexed by the Prussians in 1872, would explain the rest of the family being French.

Answer 3

The name is Germanic - which means the name (not necessarily your mother) was from a German speaking country - of which there are many throughout Europe.  Examples are Austria, Switzerland (German, French, Italian), old Prussia, Lichtenstein, etc.  

Just like America, people with other ethnic origins moved across the centuries to other countries for marriage, work, sustenance, due to war (fleeing conquerors), etc.  I have Germanic, French-speaking relatives in Switzerland and other regions of Europe.  The region of Alsace-Lorraine, a border area between modern Germany and modern France, has been passed back and forth between the two countries over the centuries, and hosts a large number of mixed French/Germanic family names and multi-lingual people.  It would be interesting to learn more of your estranged mother's origins.  Do you know when her first American progenitor came to America?  Knowing this would help you refine your search.

If you go far enough back (Roman era) in history, you'll see that the French are in large part of Germanic origin (Gaul peoples), who were drawn to a Romanesque (romance) culture/language due to ongoing association with the Roman conquerors, while other Gauls, along with many other Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Goths), retained the Germanic language/culture, because of throwing off Roman attempts to invade and dominate their people (see Hermanicus, a Teutonic prince). The two nations/cultures have always been closely intertwined, so much so that when the greatest Germanic conqueror in history was born (Frederick the Great), he was raised, trained and communicated daily in the French tongue.

Peace

Answer 4

yes

Answer 5

This is from ancestry.com:

German: topographic name from Middle High German holz ‘small wood’, ‘copse’.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from German Holz ‘wood’, either an ornamental name or a metonymic occupational name for a woodcutter or someone who sold wood.