The ancestral home of the Brettshnyder family is in the German state of Bavaria. The name Brettshnyder is an occupational hereditary surname, a type of surname that was taken from a word describing or common to the profession of the original bearer. It is a name for a carpenter or a person who worked making shelves and other wooden objects. The name Brettshnyder was originally derived from the Old Germanic word Brett, which means carpenter. It was given to a person who ran a sawmill or a lumber merchant. By the Middle Ages, the Brettshnyder family had been elevated to the ranks of the nobility and had become extremely involved in the local social, economic and political affairs of Bavaria. It acquired a prestigious reputation for its contribution to the development of the district. The social status and prestige of the Brettshnyder family was increased when it expanded and acquired distant estates in other areas of Germany.
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Early Origins of the Brettshnyder family
The surname Brettshnyder was first found in Bavaria, where the name could be considered to have made an early contribution to the feudal society which became the backbone of early development of Europe. There is record of a Sydel Bretsnyder in 1372 in Liegnitz and a Peter Bretsnyder in Breslau in 1397.
Jakob Bretschneider is listed as living in Dippoldiswalde in 1499 in a document called "Die Matrikel des Hochstifts Merseburg" which chronicles Germanic surnames. The name became prominent in local affairs and branched into many houses which played important roles in the savage tribal and national conflicts, each group seeking power and status in an ever-changing territorial profile. Bret or Brett are short forms of the name Brettschneider, a name meaning a person running a sawmill or a lumber merchant.
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Early History of the Brettshnyder family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Brettshnyder research. Another 71 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1880, 1844, 1776 and 1848 are included under the topic Early Brettshnyder History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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Brettshnyder Spelling Variations
In the medieval era, many different cultural groups lived in the German states. There are thus many regional variations of German surnames from that era. Westphalians spoke Low German, which is similar to modern Dutch. Many German names carry suffixes that identify where they came from. Others have phrases attached that identify something about the original bearer. Other variations in German names resulted from the fact that medieval scribes worked without the aid of any spelling rules. The spelling variations of the name Brettshnyder include Bret, Brett, Brette, Bretsch, Brettschneider, Bretsnyder, Brettschnyder and many more.
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Early Notables of the Brettshnyder family (pre 1700)
Prominent among members of the name Brettshnyder in this period include Friedrich Wilhelm Bretschneider, a lieutenant field-marshal in the Austrian army and at one time the commandant of the Italian city... Another 30 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Brettshnyder Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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Migration of the Brettshnyder family
Between the mid-17th and mid-20th centuries, German settlers arrived in North America by the thousands. Persecution based on religion and poverty were great motivators in this large-scale migration. So too was the opportunity for tenant farmers to own their own land. Ample land and opportunity awaited the settlers who went to such states as Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California, as well as Ontario and the prairie provinces of Canada. Research into the origins of individual families in North America revealed records of the immigration of a number of people bearing the name Brettshnyder or a variant listed above: Augustus Bretschneider, who came to Philadelphia in 1852.
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