Hello to all who are interested:
As far as I know the "von" in front of a name in Germany used to be a
sort of "knighthood" that was bestowed on someone for special services to
the King or Emperor etc. and the descendents "inherited" the "von". After
Germany lost the war in 1918 and Kaiser Wilhelm ll abdicated, it was decreed
that from then on the "von" belonged to the name and had to be spelled out.
(No more "knights" from then on.)
So it is possible that you had an ancestor who had a "von" before his
last name because he was honoured for his special accomplishments at one
time. This is called "Briefadel",
the "lower nobility".
Oda in BC
There is another possibility: "von" means sometimes also just "from" without
any nobility. For example a friend of mine has the name Zingsheim, which is
a town in the Eifel (south-west-Germany). In the past his name also was
known as "von Zingsheim" but his family just was from the area of Zingsheim,
no nobility.
Best regards, Heike