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Archiver > POSEN > 1999-01 > 0915436821


From: Jerry Frank <>
Subject: [POSEN-L] Re: Jewish Posen Resource List; Jewish Surnames
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 01:00:21 -0700


At 11:21 PM 1/3/99 -0500, Steven Fischbach wrote:

>Israel (everyone else). Members of the Kohamin and Levite classes retained
>their identity by adding on to their names the names Cohen or Levi (and
>their variations), but these were more like titles not surnames. The name
>"Katz" is an abbreviation of Kohain-Ha Tzaddik (closely translated, "Cohen
>the righteous"). I've never seen Katz spelled with 2 a's, until I did a
>soundex search using the Jewish Geneaology Family Finder (JGFF) (more on
>this in the resource list). So that's the only name on Laura's list I can
>clearly identify as being "Jewish."

Hi Stephen. Thanks for confirming my comments.

While the KATZ derivation within your Jewish tradition is quite valid, it
does not necessarily make it exclusively Jewish. The KATZ surname appears
in Lutheran records for Nagold, Wuerttemberg as early as 1602. I don't
have a surname book handy but certainly within a German tradition, it could
be derived from the German word, Katze meaning cat, and in this respect
being similar to other German surnames like WOLFE (wolf) and FUCHS (fox).

KAATZ would simply be a not uncommon spelling variant along the lines of
HAAS / HASS / HASSE.

Having said all that, I recommend to all I come in contact with that we not
approach genealogy with blinders on. The possibility of a Jewish
connection remains real and should not be outrightly ignored.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta

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