Berti sounds right if they were from northern Italy, then France, then Germany. The Waldensee group was located primarily in Switzerland. Starkenburg was a region in southern Hessen. Today it is right on the border with Baden-Wuerttemberg. There are Rohrbach's all over the place in Germany and Austria. Maybe there is a Rohrbach between Frankfurt and Mannheim. Lots of Huguenots fled France to the Frankenthal-Mannheim region during the looooooong Inquisition. Mannheim was the home of lots of Hutterites. :-) Don

Thanks Don! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Watson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 11:16 AM Subject: Re: [HESSE] HESSE Digest, Vol 4, Issue 59 - Berti, Bert, Starkenburg,Rohrbach > > Berti sounds right if they were from northern Italy, then France, then > Germany. The Waldensee group was located primarily in Switzerland. > Starkenburg was a region in southern Hessen. Today it is right on the > border with Baden-Wuerttemberg. There are Rohrbach's all over the place in > Germany and Austria. Maybe there is a Rohrbach between Frankfurt and > Mannheim. Lots of Huguenots fled France to the Frankenthal-Mannheim region > during the looooooong Inquisition. Mannheim was the home of lots of > Hutterites. > > :-) > Don > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi Don, hi All. Rohrbach is very likely to be a so called "Herkunftsname", i.e. "provenience name".  However, most will have that name not from a town, but rather from a creek. There is one town Rohrbach you can easily locate through Google-Maps in Thüringen, a bit east of the city of Suhl.  Interestingly there are hardly any people around with the name of Rohrbach. Although there might have been further towns with that name in earlier times this indicates it was not that town who has given all the Rohrbach's their name. Find a map here with today's distribution of the name Rohrbach: http://christoph.stoepel.net/geogen/v3/MapGateway.aspx?name=Rohrbach&target=DE&renderer=DE_DE&mode=rel Rohrbach translated word by word signifies "Tube Creek". However, what is meant by tube is reed which in earlier days was quite often growing at the boarder of natural creeks or small rivers.  So the correct translation of Rohrbach would rather be "Reed Creek". Such locations gave birth the name of Rohrbach rather than towns.  You find lots of creeks in Germany bearing that name. Hope this helps a bit. Regards, Thierry Dr. Thierry P. Dietrich D-61250 Usingen ________________________________ Von: Don Watson <[email protected]> An: [email protected] Gesendet: Mittwoch, den 25. März 2009, 16:16:44 Uhr Betreff: Re: [HESSE] HESSE Digest, Vol 4, Issue 59 - Berti, Bert, Starkenburg, Rohrbach Berti sounds right if they were from northern Italy, then France, then Germany. The Waldensee group was located primarily in Switzerland. Starkenburg was a region in southern Hessen. Today it is right on the border with Baden-Wuerttemberg. There are Rohrbach's all over the place in Germany and Austria. Maybe there is a Rohrbach between Frankfurt and Mannheim. Lots of Huguenots fled France to the Frankenthal-Mannheim region during the looooooong Inquisition. Mannheim was the home of lots of Hutterites. :-) Don ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message