Hello, I am new to this list and have just discovered the surname of one of my Grandmother's is TREMPER. Can anyone tell me what Nationality Tremper is? Is this surname mainly found in New York and if so, which counties? This just happened today and I have never heard this name before. Thanks for all your help. meg

Meg, I'm not an expert on the surname, it's a collateral line of mine, but I've assumed they were part of the Hudson Valley Dutch. Ulster County seems to have a heavy concentration of Trempers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The only reason I replied to your query is that I don't know if anyone else is on the list. It's been quiet so long I forgot I was subscribed to it. Sam Gagliardi Margaret wrote: > Hello, > > I am new to this list and have just discovered the surname of one of my > Grandmother's is TREMPER. Can anyone tell me what Nationality Tremper > is? Is this surname mainly found in New York and if so, which > counties? This just happened today and I have never heard this name > before. Thanks for all your help. meg > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

Dear Meg, My name is Katie Tremper, and although this is not a very common name, there is some information out there. I have always heard that it is a German name. But it is also a French cooking term meaning to dilute with wine or water. It may originally be from the Alsace- Lorraine (sp?) region of Germany/France. The Trempers were a prominent family in upstate New York in the 1700's and early 1800s. If you go to the old town area of Kinston, NY (this was the former state capital) you will see: a Tremper street, a Tremper house around the original town square, and a brass "Tremper" plaque on one of the front pews of the old Dutch reform church. The first names of the family members were either English or German (e.g. "Wilhelm"). I suppose they could have been Dutch rather than German, especially considering the Dutch origins of the state and town. The old town area has a lot of Dutch style architecture. Furthermore, in the Catskill mountains (near Woodstock) there is a Mt. Tremper mountain and village. I think at some point some Trempers moved west into the midwest. My Tremper line traces back to California, a small town in northern Kentucky, in the late 1800s, but it is actually from a stepfather named Tremper who came from southern Ohio. Therefore I don't trace the name back to NY. But my husband and I took a trip there and stayed at the Mt. Tremper Inn for fun once. Even though I made the reservation under my name, they didn't give me any discount! A couple of years ago I got an unsolicited email from someone named Roberto de Filho Tremper in Brazil, who evidently had a Tremper ancestor in NY. Perhaps our Brazilian cousin?! Even though there aren't many Trempers out there, I guess they got around. Incidentally, my father is William Floyd Tremper, born 1936 in Corbin, Kentucky, his father was Floyd Spilman Tremper, born 7/22/1909 in California, KY. Floyd's father was Frank Tremper born in 1866, place unknown, but he was actually born out of wedlock and was a McKibbon, not a Tremper. He was adopted by John Tremper, who married my great-great-grandmother Catherine Rose, in Oregon Landing, KY, and they had 4 children, but i don't know much more about John, except the lore that he came from across the river in Ohio. I've got some other Trempers documented (from 1866 to present.) Let me know if you see any connections. Katie Tremper Gagliardi Margaret wrote: > Hello, > > I am new to this list and have just discovered the surname of one of my > Grandmother's is TREMPER. Can anyone tell me what Nationality Tremper > is? Is this surname mainly found in New York and if so, which > counties? This just happened today and I have never heard this name > before. Thanks for all your help. meg > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237