Goldfoot Genealogy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                        

Aaron (c.1392-1270 BCE) , brother of Moses, first high priest with sons, grandsons, etc, following as high priests.(Cohen). DNA is J1, and forms of this, such as J-M172, J-M267; J-P58 haplogroup.

We started off being known by our first name and then our father's given name, like Nathan ben Moses (Nathan, the son of Moses).

For Goldfoot (anglicized when ancestor Nathan Goldfus moved to England, this is a German surname.  Germans had surnames way before Lithuania and Poland had to take surnames, so they must have moved northward with this surname.  Goldfoot carries the Q1b1a or QBZ67 haplogroup.

I say this because our male Goldfoot's DNA test showed that we are connected to Rabbi Wertheimer (1658-1724).  He was born in Worms, Germany, then went to Vienna in 1684 to join the bank of his uncle, Samuel Oppenheimer and soon became the court banker.  In 1719 he became chief rabbi of Hungary.  By 1700, there were only about 1 million Jews in the world.  A Wertheimer we are connected to carries J-M172 haplogroup, a Cohen.

Ashkenazi Jews had to take surnames when the government they lived under required it.
Austrian Empire...(1787)
Russian Pale (1804)-enforced by 1835-1845.
Russian Poland ...(1821)
West Galicia...(1805)
France...(1808)
German states from Frankfurt...(1807)  This may have been when Goldfus was created by our family.   However, I have found Goldfus on jewishgen and traced people back to 1730 in Telsiai, Lithuania with Iones "Jonah" Goldfus.  
to Saxony...(1834)

Sephardic surnames were often based on lineage
Cohen: named for Aaron, brother of Moses's position as high priest (Cohen, Levite, Israel)
Tzedek; highly intelligent, well educated, genious
Shaliach, the person that sends you to Israel, makes the arrangements
Tzibbur, the person who leads the synagogue congregation in prayers.

Son of in Arabic, as many lived in Arabic countries, were
ben-Hebrew, ibn- or aben is Arabic, bar-Aramaic or U or Wa (Berber)
Ben Malka, Ben Shaltiel, Ibn Malka, Ibn Shaprut, Malka Bar Aha (Gaon of Pumbadita in 771-775), Shimon Bar Kokhba (135 CE), Uhayun (Ohayon).
Ibn Ezra family claims  tracing their origin to Ezra the Scribe of 5th century BCE, a Cohen, from priestly family of Zadok who after Saul's death, went to David at Hebron and along with Abiathar, was David's chief priest.  King David lived from1010 BCE to 970 BCE.  Abiathar was the son of Ahimelech, chief priest at Nob who was with David when they had to escape a massacre with his family by Saul.

Slavic suffixes are:  --owicz
--ovitch
--off
--kin
Germanic suffix  --son ; Mendelsohn=son of Mendel
Abramowitz= son of Abram

First names could become surnames:
Mordechai =Marx is the Germanized form
Mark=Markus, Marcuse

Geography influenced surnames
Slavic suffix=ski...(from the place of)  Warshawski-one from Warsaw  Our grandmother, Zlata Jermulowske, had her surname also spelled ask Jermulowski, and she was also born in Lazdijai, Lithuania which was taken over by Poland.  So she was from Jermulow ???  I cannot find such a place.  Could it have had something to do with Germany?  Today I found many people with this surname spelled with cz endings, and in various ways.  Only her brothers and herself had spelled it exactly this way.   
Trier (Treves) Germany:  Treves, Trefus, Trevis, Trivash, Tribass, Trefouse, and Dryfus (descended from RASHI from 1040 to 1105).  The great great great grandson of Rashi was Rabbi Joseph treves of Marseilles in 14th century.
Troki, Russia=Troki.
Touque, France=Tuch, Tuchmann, Tuchner, Tuck, Tucker
Wertheim, Baden, Germany=Wertheimer, Wertheim, Wertheimber in Austria, Hungary, England, USA.  A tree was found starting in 1588.  Baden-Baden is a spa town, located in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany. It lies at the northwestern border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, just 10 km (6 mi) east of the Rhine, the border line to France, and about 40 km (25 mi) north-east of Strasbourg, France.

German suffix=er...Berliner-one from Berlin; Wilner-one from Vilna

Vocations influenced the choice of a surname:
Polish/Yiddish=Reznik, a Shochet (Hebrew word) or butcher
German/Yiddish=Shnyder
Polish/Ukrainian= Kravits
Russian=Portnoy, a tailor

A person's personal characteristics marked some for a surname
Schwarts=black
Weiss =white
Klein=small

Ornamental things could be selected.
---berg, Rosenberg=mountain of roses
---stein, Finkelstein=glittering stone
---feld, Rosenfeld,

language alphabets make different sounds causing transliteration problems
Yiddish H=Russian G
Polish/German W=English V

Before 1800, very few Jewish people had surnames.  Rabbinical families did such as:
Rapaport, Auerbach, Katzenellenbogen and Horowitz.  By 1800, there were about 2.5 million Jews in the world.

Frankfurt/Main and Prague's Jewish houses might have signs with animals in front, so names came from the signs:
Rothchild=red shield
Adler=eagle
Gans, Ganz=goose
Hahn=rooster
Lamm=lamb
Ridskopf=cow head

Jewels became surnames:
Diamond=Diamant (bearer was in diamond trade)
Wine=Wein

Resource:  DNA Tradition by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman
Fnding Our Fathers by Dan Rottenberg