oldenburg-l - Nachricht 2006-12 00050

[W. Fred Rump <fredrump(a)gmail.com>]

If I may jump in here - Holland had lots of windmills as did other
parts of northern Germany. When there was a water stream available
they also did the water wheel thing.

You have to remember that Holland as well as Germany are relatively
new political states but the people have lived there for many, many
centuries and have a common heritage. Where Holland (or better, the
Netherlands) are today the people spoke low German and culturally
there wasn't much difference between the people living along the North
Sea coastline. They all shared the same wind. :-)

Still, windmills were already in use along the coast in the 14th
century. These early mills had to be manually turned toward the wind.
The real development over the centuries over earlier middle Eastern
mills was the continuous technology improvement of the sails. This was
a roughly 500 year development cycle and then came motorized mills.

I've read up a little on early mills because my name may have it's
origin in the job of keeping the mill turned to the wind. As the wind
shifted the wooden rump of the mill had to be turned. Normally this
was a large chuck of a tree and a part of it's root - sort of like an
L which could be turned. The English also called this a tailpole or
tiller beam but an older word goes back the rump of a tree, the Rumpf
in German. The miller and the rumper typically lived in the mill which
had several floors for the various milling functions and living
quarters. We find the name Rump and various versions thereof in areas
where mills existed over time. I have a feeling the name stuck to some
of the people who worked the mill just as Miller/Müller has become
such a popular name.

BTW there is evidence of early windmills in 12th century England. The
mills listed in the earlier doomsday book were probably animal or
water driven mills. It took a bit more technology to get the sails
moving up top. See
http://www.building-history.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Buildings/Mills.htm
for sources in English.

To sum up, while Holland has many picturesque windmills, so does
Germany. In the north many a village has saved one or more of their
old windmills as historical artifacts to remind people of what used to
be. Without a mill no one would have been able to survive. The grain
was ground to flower and the baker then produced te bread which people
ate to live on. There must have been thousands upon thousands of them
all over the place.

Fred





On 12/20/06, ZARSE MARY <marygz(a)sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Hallo Joachim,
> Thank you for your response. Could you answer this
> question?  Was the state of Oldenburg influenced by
> Holland more that other German states? I noticed pics
> of windmills around Ganderkesee and many names appear
> to be from Holland.
>
> Mary Zarse
>
> --- Joachim Ostendorf <home(a)nordstyle.de> wrote:
>
> > Hallo Mary,
> >
> > "Heurel" meens a surname ... maybe a dutch name
> >
> > Joachim Ostendorf
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >   ----- Original Message -----
> >   From: Mary Zarse
> >   To: oldenburg-l(a)genealogy.net
> >   Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 12:18 AM
> >   Subject: [OL] German words
> >
> >
> >   Hello,
> >   Excuse my ignorance but....
> >     an ancestor of mine is Arend Friedrich Schuette
> > from Burstel. His
> >   father was Johann Hinrich Schuette (Schulhalter).
> >
> >   My question is: What does Schulhalter stand for?
> >
> >   Also, his wife was Anna Catharine geb. Oetken
> > Heurel 1796.
> >   My question is: what does Heurel stand for?
> >
> >   Maybe it's the name of the mother. Man, this gets
> > confusing.
> >
> >   Mary Zarse
> >   USA
> >   Oldenburg-L mailing list
> >   Oldenburg-L(a)genealogy.net
> >
> >
> http://list.genealogy.net/mailman/listinfo/oldenburg-l
> > Oldenburg-L mailing list
> > Oldenburg-L(a)genealogy.net
> >
> http://list.genealogy.net/mailman/listinfo/oldenburg-l
> >
>
> Oldenburg-L mailing list
> Oldenburg-L(a)genealogy.net
> http://list.genealogy.net/mailman/listinfo/oldenburg-l


--
Fred Rump,  Beverly, NJ also
730 5th St. NW Naples, FL 34120
fredrump(a)gmail.com
http://fredrump.phanfare.com
http://picasaweb.google.com/fredrump