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From: "Genealogie FRIT(Z)SCHE" <>
Subject: [HWE] GERBER / GERBERT - from France, or from the Netherlands, or ...?
Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 21:19:47 +0200


Dear Huguenot researchers:

After a long while of only being lurking I want to post again here, in hope
of finding some new ideas to find out the origin of my GERBER / GERBERT
family and their way they made to the Prignitz area in north-western
Brandenburg.

Well, following our oral family history, they should have been Huguenots
(?), Reformed Protestant refugiés from the Normandy (?), France (?), who
fled to Brandenburg via "Saxony" (?). The question marks show that none of
this could be proved yet ...

The first GERBER appearance in Brandenburg is the entry in the so-called
"Prignitz-Kataster" of 1686/1687, a census ordered by the Great Elector of
Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm (Frederick William) in 1686:
"Rohlstorff by Pritzwalck. Among the Hüfener No. 11 Henrich GERBER, 1 Hufe".

Hüfener: farmers who owned 1 Hufe or more
1 Hufe = engl.: hide; 1 Hufe = 30 Morgen (engl.: acres) = 76500 square
meters
Henrich = engl.: Henry, fr.: Henri

Henrich GERBER had a son called Jürgen (engl.: George, fr.: Georges), and
also his grandson was called Jürgen. I have been unable to find *any* life
dates of Henrich. The church books of Rohlsdorf and neighboring Halenbeck
unfortunately have no entries on him. His son Jürgen GERBER married ca. 1680
to a local woman and died in 1712 in Halenbeck, his grandson Jürgen (who
first was written GERBERT with the "t" at the end!) married in Halenbeck in
1713 and died in 1726. That's all I have.

No idea where the later "t" had come from - or did it belong to the surname
originally and only was forgotten for some time and remembered then? This
"t" stayed until today.

These three must have been born in about 1620, 1650 and 1680 - but where?
Where might have been disappeared a GERBER(T) family with the names
Henrich/Henri and Jürgen/Georges whose entries stop at one time, because of
refuge, movement or immigration?

It seems they have been no GERBER(T)s in the north-west Brandenburg area
before 1686 or even before 1652 (another census, the first one after the
Thirty Years War).

The surname GERBER was/is common in Switzerland, in Alsace-Lorraine (eastern
France), in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Austria and of course in many
parts of current Germany.

In current France, the surname GERBERT (with the "t") is not common, but
locally pretty cumulative (45% of all GERBERTs in France!) in the
départements of Isère, Drôme and Hautes Alpes. The area of these three
départements, the former province of Dauphiné, was Protestant area in the
16th/17th century. The Dauphinois fled to Switzerland and many of them made
their way to Protestant German states.

So conceivable are different ways the GERBER(T)s came to Brandenburg:

1. They were French Huguenots from the Normandy and made it to the United
Netherlands (or General States). After staying a while and after changing
their names to Dutch/Low German names (Henri -> Henrich, Georges ->
Georg/Gürgen/Jürgen) they moved on to Brandenburg, among many Dutch
colonists who were invited by the Great Elector to come in order to build up
the country destroyed by the long war (1618 - 1648). The Great Elector's
wife was an Orange princess from the Netherlands, and Brandenburg ever had
best relationship to the Netherlands. The electors were Calvinists, the
Brandenburg people was Lutheran.
2. They were Reformed Protestants from the Spanish Netherlands and made it
to the United Netherlands. Next possible steps see above.
3. They were French Reformed Protestants from the Dauphiné and fled to
Switzerland and on to Germany, maybe to one of the Saxonies (Electorate of
Saxony, the Saxon Duchies which covered the ares of current Thuringia, or
the "Saxon" = the southern part of the Brandenburg part which was called
Duchy of Magdeburg and city of Halle/Saale then).
4. They were Germans from one the Saxonies (or Schleswig-Holstein,
Mecklenburg, the Lower Saxony territories, or even another German state) who
made it to Brandenburg to get one of the devastated and unoccupied farms and
pretended to be Huguenot refugies in order to benefit from the grants the
Great Elector gave to French Reformed Protestants.
5. A different combination of one of the above possibilities ...

In the Prignitz area there never had been a Reformed church or community.
Either they were French Reformed and "converted" to Lutheran, or had they
ever been Lutherans?

My question to all of you experienced in researching Huguenot sources in
France and other European countries is: Where may I start best my GERBER(T)
research in France, in Switzerland, in Belgium or in the Netherlands? Any
ideas?

Any help, clues, tips, hints, addresses and even the smallest idea are
welcome and appreciated! Take as much time as you need to respond
explicitly, it's not that urgent for me anymore. Thanks so much in advance!

Sorry for this long and very detailled posting - it was important to me to
explain my conclusions and thoughts this precise way ...
Possibly there are some misinterpretations I made and misconclusions I drew
or other mistakes - please feel free to correct them!

Greetings. Have a nice weekend!

Juergen

************************************************
Jürgen Fritsche
Taunusring 56, D-63150 Heusenstamm
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mailto:
http://www.ib-fritsche.de/genealogie/d/index.htm
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