Brian, another idea: Alsatian names ending in ung- or -ang are sometimes "germanizations" of French names. The French sounds "on" and "an" do not exist in German (neither in English). E.g. Coulon => Gullung, Vincent => Weyssang; etc. The same might have occurred with Beltzung and your hypothesis of "Pelson" is not unlikely. I do not think the Beltz is a shortened form of the above, but one never knows with etymology. Etienne Le 18 juil. 11 à 21:04, [email protected] a écrit : > That agrees with my limited research. The name Beltz cropping up > after the name Beltzung. Not by much. I've always wondered if they > don't share a common ancestor in Jean Billigzung. There is another > connection of Jean Pelson l'aine who may be the father of > Jean Beltzung (oo Walbourg Gladey). However, Pelson may have it's own > etymology. > > However, it is the Beltz which interests me most, as it could very > well be > a shortening of the name Beltzung. I have names in other regions of > Europe > where this happened, and it almost always seems to happen in the early > 1600s. But we would need records to tie the names together. Records > which > don't appear to exist. Either because they were destroyed or the two > surnames are just different. Mysteries and windmills. What to chase > and > what not to chase? That is the question. I had just been musing on the > subject, when I posted that email. Wondering if anyone else had come > to my > leap of logic. > > Thanks Etienne for responding. > > Brian > > > On Mon, July 18, 2011 10:39 am, Etienne Herrbach wrote: >> Brian, >> >> I would say that BELTZ and BELTZUNG are different names. Their >> etymology isn't clear.