History of the Name

So no big revelation here, but I thought I would share it anyway.

I realized that all of the Shire surname histories referred to the name being an English name, but all of our research indicates that we are of German descent. So I took a moment to look for some likely German variants of the name and see if we can agree on the most likely "original" name.

Here is what I found. Again, not any breakthrough research, just what was listed on Ancestry.com.

The surname Scheier is a variant of the form of the German surname Scheuer, which derives from the Middle High German "schiur" meaning "barn". In the Middle Ages such a person was not only put in charge of barns owned by his village but he would typically collect a tenth of the harvest from the farmers to be used by the village's non-farm occupants.

The surname Scheier may alternately have been derived from a village named Scheuern, many of which can be found throughout the Germany of today. Someone who hailed from one of these villages, but is now living someplace else, could have been named Scheuer or Scheier.

Historic references for the surname Scheier and its variant forms of Scheierle, Scheuerle, Scheuermann and Scheuer can be found in documents dating back to the twelfth century. One Karolus Skuro (Old High German form of Scheuer) was a resident of the city of Koeln in the year 1178. The name of Cunrad dictus Scheuermann, a resident in Kirchen, near Loerrach, appears in a document dated 1272. Merk (also Marquard) Scheuerlin was a farmer near Beuren in the year 1319.

I guess the main reason I found this interesting is because I found some church documents in Pennsylvania for Conrad Scheuer, who we believe to be the "first" in America of my family's line of Shires.  There have, of course, been other spellings in documents, but Scheuer seems to be the most common (at least in my opinion, others may disagree, which is what this is all about).

Comments

[Bob Bower]

I am very interested in emailing the author of the above article on German surname Scheuer.
I thought my Great Grandmother was a Shire and then discovered that she was a Scheuer:
On 8 May 1877 Peter Eiswirth married Elisabeth Scheuer in Bastress, PA

Johann Scheuer or Schuuer , Son of Joseph and Veronica N_ _ was born 7/30/1825 in Baisingen, District Government Hurb, Kingdom of Wuertenberg, married 1-3-1852 Magdalena Jung, born 1824 in Bietingen. Hurb Wuertenberg. God Parents Mathiaus Raible and ______ Raible
Please email me at bobbower@charter.net