Hi All: Just one more comment on this subject: It was quite common - I have several in my tree. Most of them did so because of name attached to a farm, esp. in the smaller villages. But I have at least one who (perhaps had to) changed his name to hers because she was descended from nobility - complete with the "von" - even tho she was just a B�rger's daughter in Celle. Ironically, the family later dropped the "von Eltze" and simply used the name of the father, Eggeling. The earlier Von Eltze no longer used (or perhaps were forbidden to) the coat-of-arms, even tho several of them were B�rgermeister of Celle. Again, ironically, almost 200 years later, one of the sons used the simple name Eggeling but resumed use of the von Eltze coat-of-arms.
Makes for interesting speculation. What makes genealogy such fun. Jane
JANE E SWAN
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