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

[Howard Krushel]

In 1933, Fritz Schuetz, studies 40,000 records in 3 churches in the
Gumbinnen area of East Prussia, and lists information on these colonists,
who immigrated from France, Switzerland, Flanders, Elses Lorraine, and
Germany; they were invited to immigrate after the Bubonic Plague decimated
the East Prussian population in 1708 to 1710. He mentions the difficulties
in reading the records because the French speaking Pastor did not understand
German and the German speaking Pastor did not understand French.
He lists the following information:
TERRIN-(immigrates in 1711);origin Grossit/Brossitau(actually Gross-Ziethen,
Uckermark); and also from Mutterstadt, Pfalz. The Family originally came
from the Netherlands.
THORON- (also written Toron, Touron, Thouron); records do not indicate an
origin; however a family from the Kanton of Genf. originated from St. Antoni
en Rouergue, France.
DORON- (immigrated 1712)-3 origins-Mannheim; Friesenheim, Pfalz; Oppau,
Pfalz; The family originally came from Corcelles, Dep. Metz,
Lothringen((Lorraine).
Thought I'd mention this in case it might be of help,
Howard Krushel
  

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org] On Behalf Of Karl
Krueger
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:58 PM
To: GPV List
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Anybody ever see the surname Ratt? Taron

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