[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Anybody ever see the surname Ratt? Taron

[Karl Krueger]

To qualify a little more on the supposed French origins of the name Taron I have communicated with some related Tarons in Germany. One of their grandfathers supposedly did some research into their history, although I don't where he would have back tracked much of this since he would almost certainly not have had access to the church records in Lublin which are only recently starting to open up. 

The story goes that the Tarons who eventually moved to Michelsdorf, Lublin, Poland by the 1830s were derived from French Huegenots back in the 1600s who fled France because of the persecution. They ended up near Hannover and mixed with the Lutherans. Obviously the male line carried through the generations. Over the next 150-200 years some of these descendants, now fully Germanized with a French name were among the Germans migrating east in Europe. I have no solid evidence to back up this story but it sounds very plausible to me. As Guenther said, Taron is a very French name and we find other cases of French names among our Lutherans in eastern Europe. I find this possibility easier to swallow than others coming from different parts of Europe.

Günther Böhm <GHBoehm at ish.de> wrote: Otto schrieb:

>Ratt/Radt (wheel) could well be a shortened form of Rattke/Radtke  
>(little wheel or offspring of wheel)
>
Hello Karl & Otto,
RATT would primarily sound like RAT [RATH] which stands for an urban, 
feudal or royal councillor.
'Rad' would more likely occur in craftsmen's names like RADEMACHER,
RADKE more likely stem from the slavian first name Radek [Radko] as its 
diminutive [from 'rad' = happy].

>Taron/Tarrun remains a challenge.
>
Here I am at first tempted to think of the medieval town of Thorn 
[Toruń] -  B U T  the surname TARON is not uncommon in France. There it 
seems to originate from the present département Marne where several 
TARON lived in Châlons, La-Neuville-Au-Pont,  Sainte-Menehould and Vroil 
in 17th and 18th century as well as the present département 
Meurthe-et-Moselle (Saulxures-Lès-Nancy, starting from early 17th 
century as well).

Günther


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