I am researching the "Eserhaut" (As of 3/20/01 now believe the original family name was "Iserhot") family from area of Mechlenberg-Schwerin Germany. Also the Schepers family from Schlieswig-Holstein Germany. So far, I have not gotten very much information outside of my parents immediate familys.
Eldon Eserhaut was born 12/02/40 on a farm in Cedar County near Wheatland Iowa. His parents were Fred Eserhaut and Dorothea Schepers. He has one brother, Wayne Eserhaut, now living in Big Rock Iowa.
I've just begun researching the Eserhaut family tree on the Internet. There have been some difficultys because of the family surname changing. Currently, we believe that our great-grandfather, Joachim "Iserhot or Iserhott" (sp?) emigrated to the USA with his wife and children from Mechlenberg-Schwerin area of Germany between October 1882 and September 1883. Joachim's children were Henry (Eldon's Grandfather), Wilhemena, John, Emma and William (William was born in the US on Dec 7, 1883).
The family rumor is that the 3 Iserhot boys had some sort of falling out and all changed the spelling of their family names. This is what I think happened.
My grandfather Henry "Iserhot" changed his name to "Iserhaut" (which then later was phonetically changed and my fathers last name became "Eserhaut"). This change possibly occured when father went to school, as the germanic pronunciation of a leading 'I' is a phonetic 'E' in english.
My grandfather's brother John "Iserhot" changed his name to "Isenhart" (I need to do further research to this linage).
My grandfather's brother William "Iserhot" kept the original name and at some poinnt it acquired another 't' and now is "Iserhott" (It is also possible that great-grandfather's name picked up the second 't').
My theory for all of the name development comes from 2 facts.
1. When I was very young, my mother told me about grandfathers brothers having other names than ours.
2. My recent snooping through the German telephone directory for the Mecklenburg-Schwerin area does not have any names resembling my current one of "Eserhaut", but there are a couple of dozen "Iserhot" individuals listed (I will post another update after more checking and hopefully some contact with the Iserhots of Germany).
Of course these name changes are very hard to verify, especially if they were done external to any court or other system of record keeping (need some help here please!).
Other family names: Wife of great-grandfather = Elizabeth Gehrls
Wife of grandfather = Anna Dau
More later.
Please send comments, data or inquiries to my e-mail address.
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