| ![Show Contents]() Falkenstine History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Etymology of FalkenstineWhat does the name Falkenstine mean? The family name of a Jew was typically left to the individual person up until the end of the 18th century. Majority, especially in Germany and eastern Europe, still followed the custom having their father’s name included in their name. Whereas, Jews in Spain, Portugal, and Italy had already adopted the practice of using fixed family names. 1 In Frankfurt, in the Middle Ages, the Jews lived in a ghetto called the Jedengasse, where the families were registered according to the houses they occupied. The houses were categorized with symbols, long before they were numbered, and many of these house signs found their way into Jewish surnames. Some of the name Falkenstine, then, are descended from occupants of house 62, which bore the sign of a falcon, or "falke" in Yiddish. Others were Jews named Joshua (Yehoshua), who adopted Falk as a "kinnui," or a secular name. For such a case the name Falkenstine should be considered as a patronymic surname: that is, a hereditary surname that is derived from the name of a male personage. Also for this scenario, it has been suggested that there is some connection between the biblical figure of Joshua and a falcon. Although that is certainly a possibility, such a scenario is by no means clear. Falkenstine Spelling VariationsSpelling variations of this family name include: Falkenstein, Falkenstine and others. and others.
| Falkenstine migration to the United States | + |
Falkenstine Settlers in United States in the 18th Century- Anna Falkenstine, who landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1746 2
- Kaganoff, Benzion C. A Dictionary of Jewish names and their history. Schocken Books, 1977. Digital
- Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
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