Origin of the family name Bammesberger

PAMESBERGER   BAMESBERGER   BAMMESBERGER 
ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY NAME 		Bammesberger, Bamesberger, Pamesberger, Pamesberg

Pamesberg

Gündelbach, Bammesberger, Bamesberger, Pamesberger

Gündelbach
The German word "Berg" means hill, mountain. In the German language there is no meaning for Bam(m)es or Pames. I think, that our ancestors came from a hill called "Pamesberg". This Pamesberg exists in the village Altmünster (Traunsee), 40 km south of Grieskirchen. And Grieskirchen (50 km east of Salzburg/Austria, near Wels) is the home town of the first Bamesberger in Germany!

In the archives of Grieskirchen, kept in the Oberösterreichisches Landesarchiv Linz, a Leopold Pamesberger, an alderman, earning his livelihood as a turner, is mentioned several times. We read on page 29 (reverse side) of manuscript No. 2 of July 3rd, 1646, that, when his wife Maria died, he has a 14 year old boy Abraham Pamesberger. And it is an Abraham P. from Grieskirchen who immigrated form Austria to Schuetzingen (today: community of Illingen), 10 km north of Vaihingen/Enz, Württemberg , Stuttgart area (Germany).

During and after the 30 Years' War of 1618-48 the protestants in Austria were forced either to become catholic again or to leave the country. Often the elder son of a family became catholic in order to take possession of the family's property. Younger brothers stuck to their religion and emigrated. Like our Abraham. But where should he go to?

In the Swabian village of Schuetzingen after the 30 Years' War only one (!) family had survived; hundreds of inhabitants had been killed. Some dozen countrymen of Abraham had already settled there during the war. And Abraham followed them, found a home in that lovely village and married on May 11th, 1658 as "son of Leopold B. of Grieskirchen", as the church register says, a Catharina Leutner of the neighbouring village Guendelbach (today community of Vaihingen). The pastor wrote his name with a "B" instead of a "P".

His son Abraham, born on April 6th, 1667, already became the village mayor of Guendelbach. His name can still be read on the big church bell of 1707. And above the front door of a house in the Lorenzenstrasse 10 a "J. Bamesberger" and the date 1849 is chiselled in.

From this pretty village surrounded by a marvellous landscape many Bamesbergers emigrated to America and to the Ukraine. The name of some of the remaining Bamesbergers mutated to Bammesberger.