[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Schillemore

[Günther Böhm]

Jerry Frank schrieb:

>As I browsed through some GOOGLE hits for the surname I noted that the earliest info about this surname in Great Britain appears to be the late 1700s.  Since much of our ancestral research is associated with church records, can you identify what religion they might have been at that time?  I ask that question because Jews typically did not use surnames until obligated to do so under the rule of Napoleon in the late 1700s.  It may therefore be more likely that a Jewish family adapted or adopted the Schillemore surname than that you have Jewish origins.
>
>Furthermore, I would suggest that an assumption of Russian origin based solely on one non-related family's passenger list is tenuous at best.  Even if a Russian connection can be established, you would still have to deal with the vastness of the country and the millions of Germans and Jews that lived there.
>
>Your conjecture that the surname may be associated with one of the tribes of Israel MAY be valid but that does not necessarily imply Jewish origin.  Christians could also have adopted such a Biblical reference for their surname.  For example, my surname is FRANK but it is not Jewish (even though lots of Jews have that surname) and I cannot prove that I descend from the Frank tribe of Charlamagne fame.  My ancestors may simply have adopted the surname out of need and simplicity.
>
>There is certainly no question that your surname is quite unique, even when considering some possible variant spellings.  Unfortunately that may not help you find the documentation you need to confirm your origins.  You may still have to trace the documents generation by generation to find some clues.
>
Louise & Frank,
I think there are two completely different tracks:

   1. SCHILLEMORE as an English surname of Portsmouth. The suffixe -more
      is quite common in England; SCHILLE might derive from 'skill'.
   2. SCHILIMORE (apparently misspelled in the immigration manifest) as
      a Jewish surname though there is no such name in the Yad-Vashem
      database nor in the IGI. But there are a Lida SCHILMER, three
      SCHELMER (one of them 'Chane' as given name) and a Golde SCHIELMER
      in the Ellis Island ship manifests (at least Lida and Golde were
      common Jewish given names).

Guenther