Ulmer Ancestry

Origin of Ulmer Name

There are two different Ulmer name ancestral trails that I am aware of; one leading back to Germany and the other to England. The Ulmer family in this web site for a long time was believed to have came from England. New information (November, 2003) now is indicating that the first Ulmer of this family, to arrive in the colonies, was not from the English Ulmers, but from German descent.  Here is what I know about both the German and the English Ulmer name origins.      German;   I spent several years in Germany between 1968 and !973. While I was there I visited a town named "Ulm". I was told by the people of that area, that the people of Ulm were the peasants that worked the land for the local landlord. The peasants were not slaves but more like "Share-croppers".   All land was owned by the king and the "Lords" were made extensions of the royal family. At that time, people only had first names and they used where they were from as a further description of who they were. For example; Herman from Ulm became "Herman Ulm". The people as a whole-village or area were called "Ulm-ers". Meaning they came from Ulm.      English;   The English Ulmer family name is believed to trace back to the English peasants that lived in the "Moors" I do not know what "ul" meant at that time, but it goes like this; Ul-moor meant to be from the land that was referred to as a "Moor", (an area of land, often marshy and usually covered with heather). Ul-moor later became Ulmer. (I think somebody tried to sell me this idea years ago, and I'm not expecting you to buy it now, just as I didn't then).   There is always the possibility that some of the Ulmers of Germany migrated to England, and it was so far back in time that the English "Ulmer" families were thought to be completely separate from the "Ulmers" of Germany. However, they may not have been, and the town of Ulm could have been the original origin of both English and German versions of the Ulmer name.