Sunday, February 06, 2011
How Our Jewish Surname, Goldfoot, Came to Be
I have found the surname, Goldfoot, in a family with Christian German roots as well as with Lithuania's Jewish ancestry. In German it would have been Goldfuss. In 1782 Emperor Joseph II of Austria put out the Edict of Tolerance saying that the Jewish language of Hebrew and the writing of it was to be abolished. By 1787 they had to pick a German name. Their Hebrew names like David son of Moshe was to be abolished. They could not pick just any name. Two thousand possibilities were submitted to authorities and only 156 were permitted to be used by the Jews. The subject of surnames could have been of religious occupations, nicknames, home towns, occupations or characteristics of the man. If a person was wealthy, they would want the name to reflect this so the surname was picked to show wealth, being pleasant or prosperous sounding. People did have to buy their name. Any name with gold must have been expensive. This edict was copied in other parts of Germany. The Prussian Jews in 1848 still had no citizen rights.
Before 1800 most German Jews lived in cities and used a double name like Chaim Itzak Goldfuss. In the countryside Jews just used a single name. The surname of Goldschmidt was a professional name, so I can deduce that Goldfuss may have also had something to do with a profession. It was a German non-Jewish name.
The name Goldfus has been found in Telsiai, Lithuania and also in Rossieny, Lithuania. Goldfus is the Yiddish form and Goldfuss is the German form. It refers to a golden foot. My grandfather, Nathan Goldfoot, said on the 1910 Federal USA census that he was from Russia. This is what Lithuania was called in 1893. It was part of the Russian Empire before WWI.
Rossieny was about 120 miles WNW of Vilnius. It lies 55" 22'25N latitude and 23"7' 18E longitude. Telsiai is about 150 miles NW of Vilnius. It lies 55" 59' N latitude and 22" 15' E longitude. When Nathan Goldfoot emmigrated from "Russia" which most likely was Lithuania, he went to England. There he anglicized his name to Goldfoot, which the non-Jewish family also did. The same happened with the other branch of Jewish Goldfoots who went from Telsiai, Lithuania to England, then Ireland, South Africa, and then some went to either America or Israel. I have found Goldfuss in Israel, so possibly some did not anglicize the surname.
It's not surprising that many Jews moved to Russia from Germany in seeking more freedom and possible jobs. What is sad is that they had to live in the Pale of Settlement in Russia and be confined that way. It must have been better for them in Lithuania, however. My ancestor, Nathan immigrated to America in about 1893, so he was one of the first in the big influx of Jews that came in the early 1900's. He didn't go to New York, however. He went from Londonderry Port in Ireland on a ship headed for Quebec, Canada. From there he wound up in Council, Idaho marrying my grandmother in 1905.
What a surprise for me. I had gone through Council several times on the the say up to McCall Lake, a resort in the summer as well as a ski resort in the winter. It is a lovely little town with a great history of being home to several of my family members in the early 1900's. What had gone on around there in the early days was mining.
Update: 6/17/13 I have found several matches of dna with 23&Me with people of German extract. They did not know of any Jewish connections. The latest is finding someone from New Zealand, a Maori, with matching dna from one of our chromosomes. It turns out that he had an Ashkenazi ancestor who was from Germany.
http://web.me.com/ebauer/translations/page4/page4.html
http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetlmaster~ROSSIENY_f18 KOVNO_f19~ZZ~MILES~~~~~SE~~
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa050399.htm
http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetm~-2619849
Book: Finding Our Fathers-A guidebook to Jewish Genealogy by Dan Rottenberg
Before 1800 most German Jews lived in cities and used a double name like Chaim Itzak Goldfuss. In the countryside Jews just used a single name. The surname of Goldschmidt was a professional name, so I can deduce that Goldfuss may have also had something to do with a profession. It was a German non-Jewish name.
The name Goldfus has been found in Telsiai, Lithuania and also in Rossieny, Lithuania. Goldfus is the Yiddish form and Goldfuss is the German form. It refers to a golden foot. My grandfather, Nathan Goldfoot, said on the 1910 Federal USA census that he was from Russia. This is what Lithuania was called in 1893. It was part of the Russian Empire before WWI.
Rossieny was about 120 miles WNW of Vilnius. It lies 55" 22'25N latitude and 23"7' 18E longitude. Telsiai is about 150 miles NW of Vilnius. It lies 55" 59' N latitude and 22" 15' E longitude. When Nathan Goldfoot emmigrated from "Russia" which most likely was Lithuania, he went to England. There he anglicized his name to Goldfoot, which the non-Jewish family also did. The same happened with the other branch of Jewish Goldfoots who went from Telsiai, Lithuania to England, then Ireland, South Africa, and then some went to either America or Israel. I have found Goldfuss in Israel, so possibly some did not anglicize the surname.
It's not surprising that many Jews moved to Russia from Germany in seeking more freedom and possible jobs. What is sad is that they had to live in the Pale of Settlement in Russia and be confined that way. It must have been better for them in Lithuania, however. My ancestor, Nathan immigrated to America in about 1893, so he was one of the first in the big influx of Jews that came in the early 1900's. He didn't go to New York, however. He went from Londonderry Port in Ireland on a ship headed for Quebec, Canada. From there he wound up in Council, Idaho marrying my grandmother in 1905.
What a surprise for me. I had gone through Council several times on the the say up to McCall Lake, a resort in the summer as well as a ski resort in the winter. It is a lovely little town with a great history of being home to several of my family members in the early 1900's. What had gone on around there in the early days was mining.
Update: 6/17/13 I have found several matches of dna with 23&Me with people of German extract. They did not know of any Jewish connections. The latest is finding someone from New Zealand, a Maori, with matching dna from one of our chromosomes. It turns out that he had an Ashkenazi ancestor who was from Germany.
http://web.me.com/ebauer/translations/page4/page4.html
http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetlmaster~ROSSIENY_f18 KOVNO_f19~ZZ~MILES~~~~~SE~~
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa050399.htm
http://data.jewishgen.org/wconnect/wc.dll?jg~jgsys~shtetm~-2619849
Book: Finding Our Fathers-A guidebook to Jewish Genealogy by Dan Rottenberg
Labels: Germany, Goldfoot, Goldfuss, Lithuania, surname history
