Origins of a Surname - Possibly Eastern European, Russian or Polish?

[vic_vega66]

Hi, I've been doing some research into my family tree and I've come accross a real puzzle

Comments

[electricdruid]

I don't know if you've tried this, but entering Tevenin- or Thevenin in particular- into this site suggests that this surname is most common in northeastern France, with some additional presence in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Belgium, the US, and Argentina.

The site requires an email address to search, but it's not a sign-up form, so you can enter a bogus one if you like. Or not- I've never gotten a single email from them.

[lied_ohne_worte]

The German phone book has four households listed with the last name "Thevenin"; one has a French first name, the other first name could be French or German, one other is German, and another doesn't give a first name. There isn't any entry of "Tevenin", and I'd bet the site you linked to (great find, thanks!) collates its information from phone books. At least ist results for my own last name (37 entries in Germany and none anywhere else) closely match searches I've done before with German services that use the phonebook. I'm quite sure that any German Thevenins are immigrants from France, at least the name does look "foreign".

[nightfall404]

While I appreciate that this isn't the point of the post, as a local resident I feel obliged to point out that Prestwich is in Lancashire or, if you prefer, Greater Manchester rather than Cheshire. ;)

[meepettemu]

Do you know where she was born? Ie- do you know that she was an immigrant? The census record should tell you if she was born in UK and if not, where she was from. If she was born in UK, then Ancestry has the 1911 census free at the moment and that might help. You can always get the 1881 free as well. If she was born in UK then at least you can start looking at parents etc.

My great great grand parents were French. On the 1901 (she died before 1911) she is listed as birth: 'France- French subject' (and a widow).

It gets more difficult if she was born say in Ireland and then came here as there are no immigration records and if she has no parents again it's an issue, but the census might give the quickest answer about where her family are from!

[oslik_evev]

Тевенин. (Тевенина f.)

For example,

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D2%E5%EE%F0%E5%EC%E0_%D2%E5%E2%E5%ED%E8%ED%E0

However, this is a reference to the french mathematician.

[petrusplancius]

Thevenin (like Thevenet, Thouvenin etc.) is one of those French surnames that are derived from saint's names, in this case St Stephen (Stephanos, or Etienne to the French), the first Christian martyr (Acts, 6f); presumably this may appear as a surname in somewhat different form in other countries and languages.