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In a message dated 8/10/01 11:35:17 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: > The answer would seem to depend on the locality. For example, the > adoption of hereditary surnames in Lancashire in England is said not > to have been complete until around the 17th century though many are > known to have been hereditary much earlier (e.g. 13th century > England). From documentary evidence it is not always clear whether a > bye-name or surname was hereditary or not and it remains to be seen > how much extra light DNA Y-line testing can shed upon this. > > Jews in the territory under Napolean's control were ordered to adopt surnames under the Napoleanic Code, which I believe was 1807. It was supposed to ease the work of the tax collector (as our social security numbers do today). The medieval convention had been connecting one's name to one's father's name by "ben" (son of), as in Abraham ben Isaac. Especially in Germany, many Jews seem to have adopted the surnames of the Gentiles they lived among. Hence the phenomenon of the so-called "Jewish-sounding" name (e.g., Klein, Rosenberg) that often turns out to be a German name found among both Jews and Gentiles. In all of Europe, I would assume there would be one pattern if surnames were adopted voluntarily, another if a law had been passed mandating that they be adopted. pat sloane