OK, odd question for any of our German, Swiss or Austrian members...

[Treize69]

Have any of you ever heard of the name (or a place named) von Schlieren?

in reasearching my family history, I have found a marriage record for my Great-Great Grandparents, showing the marriage of Daniel Romann and "Elizabeth Frei (abbreviation for freiherren?) von Schlieren", who was supposedly either northern Swiss or Bavarian (my family is Swiss). One of their sons (there were at least three who emigrated to the US and ended up in the same area) is, of course, my Great Grandfather, who emigrated to the US in the late 1860s and married into an established German-American family and started the brood that became my family.

But we can find noone else, either in later period records or in modern name searches, with the name von Schlieren. The only things or places I can find named Schlieren are the photography process (which is named for the way the pics look, not an inventor) and a place northwest of Zurich (which is, incidentally, where they lived before they emigrated) named Schlieren. But I can't find any history or info on the place online to research.

Can anyone help?

[SirFrancis]

never heard that name in Germany. Searchen the i-net I only found this town in Swizerland you also found.

Maybe contact the people from this site. Maybe they can help you?

http://www.swissgenealogie.ch/index.html

[Gh0stFT]

what SirFrancis said, maybe thats a start,

actually i live 30km north from Zürich on the german side, i moved here 2003, sorry cant help, didnt hear that name
before.

R
Gh0stFT

[1pLUs44]

Name change maybe? My great grandparents had apparently been born into the name "MackMahon" (exactly like that) and by the time my grandmother was a teenager, it was either "MacMahon" or "McMahon"

[Treize69]

I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't a notation on where she was from, not a name. I can find Swiss people, places and businesses with my last name (including a gas amd electric works, and a psychiatrist in Zurich), but not hers.

[SirFrancis]

Familynames added with a "von" or "van" (dutch) declare where this person is from. Way back in the past, some people got their name from where they came, because lastnames were not a normal part of the whole name. So, expl. "Bernhard von München" was Bernhard who came from Munich. Thats how the people called him to identify him. Other lastnames declare the profession. Like "Meier" or "Müller".

So in your case, "xxx von Schlieren" might mean, "xxx" came from the town Schlieren. You might consider, that people from Europe moving to the USA sometimes changed their names (for what ever reason). But I don`t know how often this happened...

[Treize69]

The document states "Elizabeth Frei von Schlieren", which we assumed was "Elizabeth von Schlieren". I'm wondering now if its now actually the name "Elizabeth Frei" with the notation "from Schlieren". Its not far from Zurich, and thats where my family came from (and relatives still reside apparently), so that line of thinking is starting to make sense.

[SirFrancis]

look here: http://www.archive.org/stream/listswissemigrant01fausrich/listswissemigrant01fausrich_djvu.txt (search for the word Schlieren)
there is also a women named Elizabeth (Frey)....

maybe this can help as well:
http://www.ejourney.com/~bfrei/frei.html

or this
http://users.moscow.com/2IDcrawfords/genlinks.html

or this
http://www.ancestry.com/facts/frei-places-origin.ashx

[Treize69]

With that avatar, are you Bavarian? (probably stupid question)

[SirFrancis]

yes, Bavarian

[E25280]

The document states "Elizabeth Frei von Schlieren", which we assumed was "Elizabeth von Schlieren". I'm wondering now if its now actually the name "Elizabeth Frei" with the notation "from Schlieren". Its not far from Zurich, and thats where my family came from (and relatives still reside apparently), so that line of thinking is starting to make sense.

Frei (Frey) is a very common name from my home town -- which was originally settled by Swiss.  Think you are on the right track.

[Treize69]

Hmm, maybe I'm related to Royal Frey. Might be an interesting coincidence, that. 

[gunnss]

My suggestion would be to go over to Baens Bar (http://bar.baen.com/Default.aspx) and PM Virginia DeMarce (http://bar.baen.com/Users/Profile.aspx?id=11f1f13a-192b-4f15-b5c9-5c17b37c7487)

She it the author that is writing the Bavarian sector of the 1632 novel cycle. She is also deep in to German genealogy.

Just a thought,
Kevin

[Viperius]

Hey Treize69,

Von Schlieren actually refers to the place and not the name, Elizabeth as the first name and Frei as the last name, quiet a common swiss last name by the way which just translates to "free". Schlieren is the northwest part of Zurich. In old documents they used this connotation to describe where a person was born or grew up/lived in.

Cheers
Vipes

[Treize69]

Hey Treize69,

Von Schlieren actually refers to the place and not the name, Elizabeth as the first name and Frei as the last name, quiet a common swiss last name by the way which just translates to "free". Schlieren is the northwest part of Zurich. In old documents they used this connotation to describe where a person was born or grew up/lived in.

Cheers
Vipes

Since you live in Zurich (or at least thats what the forum says), just how many things and people around there are named "Romann"? I entered the original spelling of my last name into google earth to see if maybe it was a town and it came up with those little red pointers all over Zurich. Businesses, buildings, and people (like a psychiatrist).