Every once in a while, I find quirky websites and Namensverbreitungskarte is one of them.
Do you have any German surnames in your family tree? Then you might want to check out this website. It is a German surname distribution map, which focuses on two years in history – 1890 and 1996.
Obviously, if your surname is very common, it might not tell you much. However, Stufflebean is a rare surname, both in its modern American spelling and its original German spelling of Stoppelbein.
I had to try out the map and the 1890 view shows that there were but a handful of places where a Stoppelbein was to be found.
I added the surname, which then appeared in a turquoise box. Corresponding colored dots appeared on the map. I’ve enlarged the map as far as it will go, so I’ve added arrows to show the few places where the surname was found in 1890.
And in 1996?
The legend now has two Stoppelbein boxes, one in turquoise for the original 1890 map and one in magenta to represent 1996. I’ve only placed arrows kind of at the outer regions where Stoppelbeins are found in Germany today.
It’s fun to see the growth of Stufflebean relatives, as it is a unique surname and, as far as we can tell, all are descended from one man born about 1600.
I also tried various spellings of Dulworth – Dulwert, Dulvitt, etc., hoping to get a lead on where the elusive John Dulworth began life in Germany before martians dropped him off in Knox County, Tennessee in the 1790s. However, I got no hits for any form of that surname.
It’s a very easy site to use, with directions in English even though it is based in Germany.