Follow Up: What’s In A Name?

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Back in December was when I unearthed one of the more unique artifacts (pictured above) that’s now part of the permanent collection of the Will & Susan Campbell Museum of Backyarcheology. It was a mailing label plate for the uniquely surnamed P. Engensperger and I posted about it with the headline “What’s In A Name?”

Wouldn’t you know in my inbox is an email from a Canada-based Engensperger who happened upon that post during a cruise of the internet and sent me some more information about the name:

Hello!

I read with interest your blog re P. Engensperger, which I happened upon entirely by accident.

I am an Engensperger in Canada, and as far as I know we are the ONLY Engenspergers in Canada. I know that there are some Engenspergers in the USA, but as far as I know there aren’t many.

My father immigrated from Switzerland, and there aren’t many there, either. My grandfather in Switzerland was the curator of a museum and he did a significant amount of research. He traced our line back to the 14th century, about which time our line appears to have crossed the border from Hungary. I’m told there are plenty of Engenspergers there. (He joked that we were a band of gypsies.)

Our name used to be spelled: Enggensperger. I have an old ring that had been used to emboss a wax seal with our family crest, which is a dove standing on three hills with two stars in the sky. I’m told that our name comes roughly from “of the mountain village.”

It is interesting what one can find on the internet, and your blog is a good example!

Cheers,
Norman Engensperger

 Man but the internet is a marvelous thing.