Some History of the Shopher Surname

namelogo.jpg (3348 bytes)

From what I've learned, if your ancestors were in France before 1792 they undoubtedly came from one of the following regions: Alsace; Metz et la Lorraine; Comtat Venaissin; Bordeaux-Bayonne. And since Frederick Shopher was born 1795 France we can assume they were there during the time Napoléon made his decree on Jews.

In 1808 Napoléon required all of the Jews of the Empire to chose and declare a fixed first name and surname. At that time they were still using one names as in the Bible like Jesus of Nazareth or Mary of Magdalene. They had no last names just one name and where they were from. The decree Napoléon wrote up was called "The Declarations of the choice of family names".

People used their occupations as last names, for instance Melton means Mill Town that name came from a miller and first names were tacked on,...hence the name Carol Melton...lol

If indeed our ancestors were scribes they would have used Shopher (Spelled their way) as the last name and then tacked on first names since Napoléon ordered them to have 2 names. I would imagine the spelling we know came from their arrival into America. If the name was long and they arrived at Ellis Island, the people there would have shortened it to Shopher.

I've already gone through the registers and I'm sure it was spelled differently but at this point there are so many ways it could have been spelled...I've seen Soper and even Shoper and several with the sounding of Shopher.

The first names may be the only thing French...like Frederick may be French or German. Considering the history of the Jews in France during his time frame, I would almost bet they were French Jews.

Kudu-2.jpg (12937 bytes)

Thank you for viewing!