Surnames

Southern Bohemia provides an interesting assortment of records that sometimes do not match. I do not think it is the fault of the records, or the people, much has to do with the culture and era. In other words, as hard as it may be, I do wish to place 21st century sensibilities to decide what was right or wrong in the 17th and 18th centuries. One issue of difficulty is surnames. Surnames started to come into use in the middle ages, but in some of the small rural outposts of southern Bohemia surnames were transitional, if present, into the 1700's. It was in that century that surnames seem to become standardized for some hamlets in Southern Bohemia. I see this in my own family tree, particularly the Jiral line. 

The most difficult aspect to researchers in southern Bohemia are what are known as After the Roof surnames. An After the Roof surname occurs when a person has adopted, or thrust upon them, the name of a previous owner of a house they now occupy. Here is an example, I have a brother who married a woman and they bought her father's farm. If this was long ago Bohemia he may not have been known by Hovel, but instead become known by his father-in-law's last name. For good reason, after the roof surnames are usually a man inheriting his the surname of his father-in-law. The first example I had of a likely after the roof surname may have involved Hans from Klenowice. Hans married Jakub Havel's widow, and the 1651 Soupis (census) referred to him as Hans Havel. It is possible his surname was Havel, but my guess is the Havel surname in this case was an after the roof surname. At some point, the empire, and some domains desired to curtail the after the roof surnames, and from this you will see why. While surnames reportedly started to be used in the middle ages, we have already seen with the Havel family how the surname developed from a first name in the 17th century. Let me now explore surname issues relative to the Jiral-Ruesmueller side of the family tree. 

1714 Seigniorial Register (Seg Reg.), Lorentz Zimmerman

I know from experience that that persons here in the US, particularly with farm consolidation, refer to one of the acquired farms by the prior farm owner. That was common in Fitchburg where a new owner referred to part of his holdings as "the old Fahey farm." I also heard from a relative that even after Rudy sold his Iowa farm (previously owned by Martin) it was known for years as the Hovel farm. In the old country it was not really different, it was just the name stuck. We see evidence of what farms were called in 17th century Bohemia in Ordinal 7, which dates from 1662-1670, of the land registers. The Kopac farm (which would become number 18) is referred to as Dwur Kopaczowksy--or the Kopac farm. At Chvalovice we see the land register refer to what would become known as house #13 as Challupa Giralowski--the Giral farm. The Challupa is a reference to holding representative of a small peasant cottager--Chalupnick. (The Jiral timeline does not match with the name, but given the prior name crossed out, it was a later addition.)

You never know what you get with south Bohemian records. As Richard D' Amelio, who I use to translate the complex land register records (but more importantly provided guidance, insight, hints, and even assemblage to better comprehend the records) commented that use of parish records will hopefully clear up rather than  "cloud the research further but who knows in southern Bohemia." 

1701 Seg Reg. Nikolas Zimmerman

In researching my ancestors we used available digitized records for the 17th and into the 18th centuries. These records included land registers, Seigniorial registers (land owner, subjects and orphans), and parish records. Due diligence was accomplished, and I can express with a high level of confidence what is reported. It required working through the varied sources to assure that it all made sense. To set the stage for the Jiral line, Theresia Jiral, my third great grandmother (mother of Josef Havel b 1808), was born to Mathias Jiral and his wife Catherina Ruesmueller. Theresia married Frantisek Havel just over 226 years ago on 25 October 1796. 

Jiral Line Chart

The above pedigree chart shows the surnames, as I have them recorded on the Jiral and Ruesmueller branches. I will not always provide relationships, so the above chart will be useful. The chart is in twenty-first century speak, but a deep dive into the varied records provides a  look at the surname issue in the 17th and early 18th centuries. It is rather complicated, and took some time to investigate and sort out. 

In 1716 when Lorenz took on the farm at Dolni Chrastany (now known as #3) from his father-in-law Jakub Ruesmueller the surname is written as Jiral, but before 1716 there are other surnames in use for the family.  The first available record I have had transcribed for the Jiral family is the 1672 Seignorial Register for the village of Chvalovice, a 35 minute walk from Dolni Chrastany. In this record there is a notation by the name of the bride, Katherina Sikl's (aka Tesar) name: "[Katharina 18yrs] ist Ihr d (29 Apr( dem Nikolasen deß Jakob Span Sohn v. Kolowitz zuheyrathen verwilligt worden." In English this is: "Katharina 18yrs - she was granted permission to marry Nikolas, Jakob Span's son from Chvalovice on 29th April".  Nikolas Span, is Lorenz's father.  The marriage records the same surname and identified Mikulass, son of Jakob Span who married Katherina daughter of Mathias Tesar. Here, Katherina is identified by Tesar, but the land register has her father's surname as Sikl.  

1672 Seg Reg. Matej Tesar (Sikl)
Notation by daughter Catherina's name given permission to marry
Nikolas, so of Jakob Span

Tesar is in Czech what Zimmerman is in German, and what Carpenter is in English. The parish records did not use Sikl, but rather a vocational or occupational related surname--carpenter. As regular readers of this blog will know, small farmers regularly had to have a second occupation in hopes to provide sufficient income to support their family. The land the Sikl's held was known as a small holding, and in fact, it had only about 4.26 acres of arable land. You would not be able to support a family from this small acreage, and thus the need for a secondary source of income. Nikolas Span (Jiral) would take on the Sikl farm in 1673, and later his son Lorenz would own the farm for a short period of time before moving to take his father-in-laws farm in Dolni Chrastany.  Many of my Havel ancestors trained as weavers, the Sikl's were carpenters. The Jiral side, besides having Span, also had, after Nikolas married Katherina, the surname Tesar.  

1696 Seg Reg (account of orphans)
Nicolas Zimmerman, Challuper; Lorentz is three years
at the time of book entry.

We see Tesar being used when Nikolas's son Lorentz (Laurentius in the above pedigree chart) was born in 1693, and when he was married to Marianna Ruesmueller in 1712. However, into the early 1700's when German came into use, the Seignorial Registers will use the surname Zimmerman, which is the same meaning as Tesar . We came to figure out this was the same person when, fortunately, one record recorded Zimmerman oder Jiral, meaning Jiral as an alias. There was also a record where Nikolas was recorded as Nikolass Gyral od[er] Teserzen. The key being Teserazn which put the Tesar surname as an identifier by occupation.  We were also fortunate that when Nikolas took over his father's farm the land register recorded Nikolas Jiral oder Span. Hence, we can see several surnames, but they all relate to each other, and point to the same lineage. In brief, from the records we knew that the Span family also went by Tesar, Jiral (or Gyral). Looking at the all three record types allowed the puzzle to be pieced together. 

What we don't know is how the Jiral surname came about. Richard D' Amelio was gracious to take a look back in earlier land register records to see if he could find a reference to Jiral, and on 27 Oct 2022 wrote: 

I had a quick flick through the Chvalovice section of the land register hunting for a source of the name Jiral… unfortunately, I didn’t get any further with that, but I did find that Nikolas’ father Jacob Špan took on Chvalovice No. 1 in 1662. The linking evidence is that Nikolas is named as recipient of inheritance after Jacob Špan’s death, and following Nikolas’ death (at Chvalovice No.13) a redistribution of his portion names the same list of heirs as those listed against his smallholding.

This report, while providing nothing definitive on the Jiral surname, shows how Richard, and I linked individuals through the varied records. There is a high level of confidence due to the land registers recording heirs, and the heirs matching both Jacob and more importantly Nikolas. For a while, at least, the after the roof name, Tesar stuck with Lorenz, but when Lorenz moved to Dolni Chrastany the surname Jiral becomes settled. He was finally free of the after the roof surname Tesar. But why Jiral and not Span, we have no idea.

1714-1726 Seg Reg. Jacob Ruesmueller
with Lotentz Jiral od (oder) Zimmerman 

Now, if that was not sufficiently complicated, at one point, in 1715 when Lorenz sold this smallholding in Chvalovice, Lorenz was referred to as Haisl. That had us wondering, until the deeper dive showed that after Lorenz's father, Nikolas, passed away his mother, Marianna, remarried a man named Mathias Haisl. Lorenz was known, for a brief period of time, by his stepfather's surname. 

What I find of interest when two surnames existed, it appears the after the roof surname was more common for parish records, than the land records. This makes some sense. The parish records probabaly recorded the surname as commonly used, or what I call the colloquial surname. Place yourself in this era. I am taken back in time to the late 1700's in southern Bohemia, and if that was not sufficient of a miracle, I can also speak fluent Czech and German indigenous to the time. I find myself in the small village of Chvalovice, and am inquiring about the Jiral family. Those residents I meet, after wondering why I am dressed so funny in my jeans and sweatshirt, are familiar with first names, and perhaps occupations. Yet, they scratch their collective heads with Jiral. That is until the village headman appears wondering what the commotion is about. The headman recalls a land register entry from a few years prior (Village Headsman often helped negotiate sales) that who people refer to as the Tesars (carpenters) were also known as Gyral. The guy then says "You mean Nikolas Tesar, who lives down the road a bit." House numbers were not available at the time, so I may ask what the house looks like. We certainly see the development of surnames related to occupation--Carpenter, (tesar (Czech)=zimmerman (Ger)) Smith, Cook, Weaver, Farmer, Sheppard to name a few.  This is not unique to Bohemia, but they seemed to have taken the after the roof surname to a whole different level.

Yet, things get even more complicated on the Ruesmueller side of the  Jiral line. This one presented a real puzzle. As we know, the Havel family came to the property at 18 Dolni Chrastany via Frantisek's marriage to Theresia Jiral. The Jiral family came to the property by Mathias' (Theresia's father) marriage to Catherina Ruesmueller. We find in 1702 that Catherina's grandfather, Bernhard, acquired the farm in 1702 from Veit Turek and Bernhard is married to Veit Turek's daughter. Veit Turek bought the farm from a man with a first name of Matej, but no surname is provided, it may have been his brother, but we don't know. (Itrust you are following all of this.) Yet, there is also the name Veit Kopac. And, to confuse matters even more, the surname Paur is also seen. A Veit Kopac married Katherina Fitzl on 25 Nov (or Dec) 1680, and the farm sale to Veit Turek occurred on 21 May 1681. When Veit died, about 1715, a side note in the land register lists his children as heirs--including Margareth. Bernard Ruesmueller married Margareth.

 1696 Seg Reg. Jacob Melchior (aka Ruesmueller)

Comparing the land register information to that in some of the Seignorial registers we find that Kopac, Turek and Paur are likely all the same family. We are also fortunate of the interplay between the records and that the villages had small populations. The land register indicates only one sale for 1702 and that is of Veit Turek to Bernhard Ruesmueller.  This is verified by a Seignorial record which noted permission was granted to Margareth Kopac to marry Bernhard. But, she was also known as Margareth Paur, probably another after the roof surname. The marriage record of Bernhard Ruesmueller on 19 Nov 1702 is to Margartha Paur. The farm was sold to Bernhard a few weeks later on 7 December 1702. The one sale in that year, the entry in the Seignorial records of permission to marry and the parish marriage record, all pointed to multiple surnames in use for the one family. And, they just happen to be in my family tree!

1701 Seg Reg. Jacob Paur Ruesmeuller
(Paur is crossed out)

The surnames vary perhaps by time and record. Many of the parish records use Paur, while the land register uses Kopac and Turek. Although Veit's marriage in 1680 is Kopac, not Paur, which lends support that Paur is an after the roof name, or perhaps a vocational designation. Paur can be read as Baur, or Bauer which are builder and farmer, respectively. We have to understand that much of Dolni Chrastany was settled by ethnic Germans and became part of the infamous Sudetenland controversy of WWII. Yet, it was not far from the Havel ancestral village of Ratiborova Lhota which was not part of the Sudetenland. This area is in an interesting area of cross-culturalization.  I had trouble finding Catherina's father Wenzel's (b 1711) birth record. Richard D'Amelio located it, but it has his surname as Paur, probably an after the roof name since his father married a Turek/Paur/Kopac, not unlike what was used with the Jiral family. 

 1696 Seg Reg. Veit Kopac family

At first I thought Catherina Ruesmueller's (Theresia's mother) family was exempt for the surname difficulties. But, I was wrong. We know that Lorenz (Mathias's father) Jiral's first spouse was Marianna Ruesmueller, who was a sister to Bernhard Ruesmueller, Catherina's grandfather.

Lorenz's first wife, Marianna, was a Ruesmueller, yet her surname in the marriage record appears as Krejci, which means tailor. They were married on 20 Nov 1712, and the land register notes a sale to his son-in-law Lorenz Jiral on 9 Nov 1716.  The 1714 landed subject register provides verification as contains a note by Marianna’s name, with her having received permission to marry in 1712. The marriage would have taken place in her home parish and this is the one marriage that corresponds to the sale of property.  The timing also fits when Lorenz took on Chvalovice No.13 in 1713. Furthermore, a Jakob “Krejcí” did not exist in the village according to the seigneurial registers, but we know that the Seignorial Reg for 1714 is clear that the name is Jakub Ruesmueller. But, there is yet another surname.  Jacob R was also referred to in the 1696 Seignorial register as Melchior. While the previous owner of the farm was Bauer, it may be a play on an after the roof name since a Melchior Bauer was owed money for the sale from Jakub. From the records we see that early on the Ruesmueller family used Krejci and Melchior. In this case, however, we only see these alias names used one time each as by 1701 Ruesmueller is used exclusively in the Seigniorial registers. The use of "Kregczyho," that is, Krejci, is also this one time outlier.

Seg Reg. Veit Kopac, 1701
Note by daughter Margareth given permission to marry in 1702. 

Why did the records use different surnames? First, the records were kept at different places, the Church records at the parish church in Netolice, and the land registers at the domain's regional office. Hence, the writers of each likely seldom saw each other. The parish priest was closer to the residents and here is where the colloquial surname comes into use, the priest used what was used by the people, as they would get the required information from the families, or in case of baptism from the Godparents. One can see why the authorities desired to curtail the use of the after the roof surname. As we have seen, a man married a woman and took over her father's farm. As Richard D'Amelio said, can you "imagine again, a male pedigree line in which several generations took over the holding of a father-in-law… the list of names in use by all those individuals may be lengthy… it’s a wonder anyone remembered their real name." And, that may be the case with the all the names used by these ancestors. While we don't know how or when the Jiral surname originated, we know that Nikolas used the surname Jiral after Span, and Tesar (Zimmerman in Ger.). I am just glad the first names did not change. 

Sources: Land, Seignorial, and Parish Registers for Netolice at Trebon Archives

Special thanks to Richard D'Amelio of Bohemib Reseasrch for knowledge provided, guidance, and assistance in arranging, locating, and transcribing records.