Several days ago, I discovered that I had a German ancestor (okay, I have thousands of German ancestors, and in fact, most of my ancestors are German) with the surname Wolf.Well, that’s cool, I thought. Maybe it signifies something important like a brutal warrior.
Not long ago, I wrote a blog entry about a practical joke my father pulled on my sister and me when we were too young to do anything, other than scream, wet our pants and run like hell, once we got our legs working again. You see, the Wolf I found in my family history is on his side of the tree and not really that many branches over his head.
Of course, since I was looking at a German surname with its roots in Wolff, Wolffe, Wulf, and Wulfe, there was a better than even chance the English definition would be something like barn door, close it quickly ‘cause the wolf is approaching and the hens are loose.
After several minutes of digging through piles of books, file folders and reams of loose paper, I found my copy of German American Names by George Jones (yes, Jones, and that is his real name, I think) and settled back into an antique midwife’s rocker (no, no need for a midwife in our house unless she can organize 5000 plus books, etc, then she‘s hired).
With the anticipation of a scratch-off lottery ticket addict, I paged into the book seeking the section of W surnames. And finally, t
here it was Wolff, Wolfe, Wulf and Wolf meant, well wolf. Originating from Wolfanger, which is Wolf catcher, or from a guy who really needed a body shave.After anticipating the heroic adventures of an old time knight with a ferocious beast emblazoned across his breast plate and shield, I felt let down. But, then I considered the wolf in nature, and imagined the courage required to catch a wolf 1000 years ago, and vindication pulsed through my blogging veins.
What a difference between then and now!
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