[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Breitkreitz/Breithrenz

[Günther Böhm]

>Is it possible that Breitkreitz and Breithrenz may sound similar when translated from German to English?  I am unable to figure this out as do not speak any german.  Also could someone please tell me where Bessarabia was located.  Am having difficulty finding that one.
>

Hi Dolores,
BREITHRENZ seems to be a misspelling (think of the similarity of h and k 
resp. of n and u). BREITKREUTZ instead is quite common in Germany. The 
origin of the name was most probably the special broad-shouldered build 
of a family (Kreuz = cross, but also the human shoulder region; "er hat 
ein breites Kreuz" means "he is broad-shouldered").

In the German telephone register I found
2 x BREITKREIZ,
192 x BREITKREUTZ,
388 x BREITKREUZ

The spelling BREITKREIZ is dialect, BREITKREUTZ is old-fashioned 
(18/19th century). Curiously there is not one event of BREITKREITZ in 
Germany but lots of them in the US. So I think the American events 
result of the dialect of one or two BREITKREIZ immigrants who changed 
the Z into TZ in favour of the German pronounciation.

Guenther
of Hilden, Germany