The Beter Name Study has German_Roots!

Question

This  Family has German_Roots that goes back centuries!

Answer 1

Sorry Sharon but Beter isn't a German name. I have never heard of it and there is also no entry in the phone book.

Maybe you mean Peter instead?

Comments

My Beter family lived in Germany, way back,  in the 1700s., coming up from Switzerland in the 1600s. ;)  Please see [[Beter-1|Anna Elizabeth Beter]], as entered by my fourth cousin Jillaine Smith.

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I looked it up and the source is the IGI, right? So I guess it's a reading error, the old P looked close to the B and most likely a non German has entered the information.

Do you or Jillaine have a copy of the church book entry?

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Not me. Jillaine and another cousin did the research. I am the poster. :)

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Just to comment on the B vs. P thing: Beter is a contemporary, albeit rare last name in Germany: http://www.verwandt.de/karten/absolut/beter.html

Beten as a verb means to pray and a Beter is a praying person. It is perhaps too much speculation but many Swiss emigrants left due to religious persecution, particularly Anabaptists to the Palatinate, and their last name could easily reflect their religious fervor.

 

Answer 2

Try this link:

 http://www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?mivast=0&miadt=0&mizig=310&miview=tbl&milang=nl&micols=1&mires=0&mip3=Beter
 

Some in the Netherlands.

Gr. Joop

Comments

Yep, beter (Dutch) = better (English). But she said the family is from Switzerland, so I still would bet my money on a reading error

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Germany and Switzerland Beter Families:

http://www.wikitree.com/genealogy/Beter

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Yes, but non of this profiles have good sources.

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The Peter/Petter/Beters of Lauterecken were originally from Elgg, Switzerland, (and formerly Schneit, Kuehlberg, Zurich) and part of a group of emigrants to the Pfalz in the mid 1600s.

You're right; the sources for this branch need improving.

This was from some of my earliest work and obtained in part from a German and Swiss researcher.

I do have Lauterecken parish records, but the ones I have are later, after a female Beter marries into a Wickert/Wichart line about 1691. It's possible that the Beter line in Lauterecken died out.

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And ugh... from an early GEDCOM upload. I haven't gotten back that far in my cleanup.

Goin' in...

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Thanks Jillaine! Perhaps I should change the question to "The Beter Name Study" has Swiss and German Roots?".

I will be emailing you soon about the Wickert Famiily tree.

Your cousin,

Sharon

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Okay, I cleaned up Anna Elisabetha and her father Hanß Conrad Beter, but ran out of time. Gotta get to work.

Sharon, maybe you could pick up where I left off? I found a number of records on familysearch.org, citing the Lauterecken parish records.

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The roots, in this case, are Swiss, transplanted to the Pfalz. ;-)

Looks like there were a couple of male Beters/Betters born in Lauterecken-- brothers of our Anna Elisabetha. But-- at least as indexed by the LDS-- I find no records of them as adults. Examination of original Lauterecken records is in order to see if they a) survived infancy; b) remained in Lauterecken; c) had progeny.