As many of you know the rumor around my family is that before my Great great great grandparent came to America they had the name Von Baldowski. Well this postingI made to ancestry.com 10 years ago was finally answered last month. I totally forgot I had posted anything. A distant cousin did the research and found out my family was a Von before arriving. Christian Von Baldowski was the father of the seven brothers that came over.
As the following points out, I am of noble birth.
In Germany, ‘von’ means noble, and all persons belonging to the nobility have ‘von’ before their family names, without any exception. Persons who do not belong to the nobility cannot put ‘von’ before their names, as they have no right to do so, and would be found out directly if they assumed it, and make themselves ridiculous. But in case of a man being knighted for some reason or other, he has the right to put ‘von’ before his family name.
This quote comes from Last Names website. Unfortunately this is as far as I have gotten in research. I don’t have the time or money to go places so the best I can do is Internet searches. These usually take me to websites in German or Polish which I can’t read.
So I guess I am a nobleman.
Also the story about Baldowski Bottling was written about in the paper in Augusta Ga. It is an article about a bottling exhibit at the Augusta Museum. It is the second article on the page.
One bottle in the exhibit was produced by Baldowski Bottling Works, whose owner turned down an offer for Augusta’s Coca-Cola franchise in the early 1900s because he believed his drink was better.
Ah the twists of fate.
Already a comment. I found the following at Goggle Books. It is fascinating, and lists my great, great, great, grandfathers bottling company as a resource in Augusta GA. It also is a history of the development of Georgia from statehood through 1912, when the research was done. The most interesting is the breakdown by county of all the natural resources in the county. The link is http://books.google.com/books?id=MaBJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=baldowski+bottling&source=web&ots=TAH9_DWFT4&sig=HjdXc_gkS0f_9xldk5m9zo_BKqQ&hl=en
Just remember your good buddy Jeremy when you come into your land and money.
It’s cool you finally got some definite information on that. I am starting to get more interesting in finding out about my family history. A few months ago I found out that the Clifton line can be traced back to a fellow who came over to Britain with William the Conqueror and was given land by him as a reward for his service.
Now that I’ve told you that, don’t you ever dare call me French. It’s Norman, by golly!
Why, oh why couldn’t I have been Irish, or Scottish, or German, or Prussian?
I spoke to the German professor here at Sanderson. He is from Germany. He told me that Von was a title only blue-blooded nobles could use, though it is no longer as prominant now. It means “from” so there was once a town or estate named Baldowski in Germany or Prussia at one time. We have also found a shoe company run by Baldowski’s and there is a Baldowski Power company also.