Williams family and other related Surnames:Information about Christian Hochstattler
Christian Hochstattler (d. date unknown)
Notes for Christian Hochstattler:[tree.FTW]
The Origin of the name Hostetler
The Swiss people, including our early ancestors, first came to live in a Roman province called "Helvetica", which was settled by a Germanic people called the "Alemanns" during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. Due to the passionate work of Irish Missionaries such as Saint Colomban and Saint Gall (for whom the Swiss city of Saint-Gallen is named) many Swiss were converted to Christianity. The territory in which they lived formed a part of the empire of Charlemagne in the ninth century, while in the tenth century Muslim and Magyar raiders cloaked the region in darkness.
Most scholars consider the foundation of the Swiss nation to have been laid in the year 1291, when the cantons of Uri, Schmyz, Nidwalden (the Forest Cantons) and Oberwalden formed a league of mutual defense against the Habsburgs of Austria which was to become the foundation of the Swiss Confederation. By 1353, our forefathers became citizens of the Confederation when Luzern, Zurich, Glarus, Bern and Zug were added.
Until about 1100 A.D. most people in Europe had only one name. As the population increased, it became awkward to live in a village where, perhaps, half the males were named John and the another sizeable percentage named William and so forth.
And so, in order to distinguish one John from another, a second name was needed. There were four primary sources for these second names. They came from the bearer's: occupation, town or area of residence (toponymical), parent's name (patronymical) or some personal, distinguishable characteristic he may have had.
The surname Hostetler and it's numerous variations are anglicized forms of the Swiss surname Höchstetter, which is of toponymical origin. These types of surnames were often attached to, or assumed by people who had moved away from their home towns but had become identified with the towns, and subsequently name after them. Many towns and villages are named Hochstadt, Hochstedt and Höchstetten, but the most likely town to have inspired the name of our family is Höchstetten, which is located in Switzerland west of Luzern. The proper noun Höchstetten consists of two distinct elements, "höch" and "stetten". The initial element, "höch", came from the Middle High German "hoehede" indicating "height". The element "stetten" derives from the Old High German "stat" which originially denoted a "place or location" but later came to mean "town" (in today's German "stadt"). Thus the meaning of the place name Höchstetten is "high place". The "er" suffix of the surname indicates "person from", and therefore the meaning of the surname Höchstetter is consequently "person from Höchstetten".
In certain situations, the name Höchstetter may be of geographic or locative origin, making reference to some feature of the land found near the home of the original name bearer. The word "Hostett" remains a live Swiss word which refers to a "Baumgarten" or a "cultivated garden where trees grow". With this in mind, the meaning of the surname could be "person from the high place" or "person from the tree garden".
Another hypothesis of the name origin is the derivative of the word "Hofstatt" which is a french dialectic word which meant "servants to a wealthy, honored family living in a castle". As the Hostettlers of Wahlern locale had written their surname many times, through the ages, as "Hofstettler", the origin could possibly have been of reference to peasants serving the Hofstatt of Wahlern.
The surnames of Switzerland, in general, reflect the linguistic diversity of the country, which has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh (the latter being a language which is derived from Latin and is only used by 1% of the population). Within this structure of diverse languages, there exists a wide variety of local and regional dialects with the Swiss-German dialects remaining the most popular even in modern day.
We can see the reflections of the interaction of the various languages and dialects with the variations in the spelling of our own surname (i.e. Hochstettler, Hochstedler, Hostetter, Hostettler, Hostetler, Hufstedler and so on).
More About Christian Hochstattler:
Date born 2: 1670, Schwarzenburg, Switzerland.2006
Children of Christian Hochstattler and Mary are:
- +Jacob Hochstattler, b. July 25, 1701, Germany2006, d. Aft. 1750, PA or NC2006.
Children of Christian Hochstattler and Eva Hostettler?? are:
- +Jacob Hochstattler, b. July 25, 1701, Germany2006, d. Aft. 1750, PA or NC2006.