My G-Grandmother was Elvira Mendenhall, NC>IN md. Hiram Moore, s/ of William Moore md. Catherine Cotner, both b. E. Tn> Preble County, ON. Violet Mppre Guy. THE ORIGIN OF THE MENDENHALL NAME By George E. Mendenhall In 1965 our family was heading for Jerusalem, Jorden, where I was scheduled to be the Director of the American School of Oriental Research for the academic hyear. Our third son was to be a senior in high school that year, but there was no appropriate high school in the Arab city, so at the last moment we succeeded in placing him in a German family for the school year through the Youth for Understanding international programs. He didn't speak a workd of German, and his family didn't speak a word of English, but by the end of the school year, he could pass as a native German. The family with whom he lived consisted of two medical doctors and one teenaged son. The wife and mother of the family, Dr. Liselotte Sauer, was a very knowledgeable specialist in genealogy. When I informed her that our family name was originally "Mildenhall". in England, she immediately commented that it explained something that had been puzzling her. Actually, it is a Saxon name that originally would have been "von Muldenhalle". The first part of the name "mulden" occurs in the name of the "Moldan River in Bohemia (now the "Vitava"). It is also the name of the Mulde River, a tributary to the important Elbe River that flows through eastern Germany. Just to the North of the Mulde is the Saale River. On its bands is the important cite "Halle:. The "halle"derives from the fact that the city and region were famous centuries ago for their salt mines (cf. haloids). The name meant originally something like "from the salt mines of 'Mulde" river." Other explanations of the name are certainly what was termed "popular etymologies"." What this means, then, is that the Mendenhall name came from Saxony with the migration of Saxons into England in the 5th to 6th centruries A.D. when they succeeded in establishing a series of kingdoms that we still term "Anglo-Saxon." Acording to tradition, sometime before A.D. 500, a Briton king invited a number of Saxpn adventurers to enter his service as mercenaries to protect his regime from the Picts and Irish who were raiding him. They soon rebelled but the British succeeded in confing them to the South and East coastal regions for many hears: precisely the area where the two modern towns of Mildenhall still exixts. Written by George E. Mendenhall, Ann Arbor, MI Volume 6 Number 1 MENDENHALL MATTERS January 1999 6 ("MENDENHALL MATTERS" is published on the MFA website -----Original Message----- From: germanna_colonies-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:germanna_colonies-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of PATRICIA Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 8:31 AM To: germanna_colonies@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [GERMANNA] Cortner family of Guilford Question: Do you know of the Cotner, Gortner, Cortner family of Guilford & Orange Counties, NC? There was a George Cortner in the German part of the Guilford County map, by Fred Hughes (name, I believe). There were Cortner's in that 28 mile stretch of German settlers along the Guilford/ Alamance county line as indicated by the Hughes Map. And, probably some there today. There was also a prominent Mendenhall family in Guilford County. Does anyone know if the Berry family came down to Guilford or Randolph Counties. There are many in the area today. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GERMANNA_COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message