Our name–what does it mean?

Judging by the teasing I got on the playground at St. Bernard’s elementary school in Middleton, WI, our name can sure mean a lot of things. The literal translation is “God’s Acre”. I had a friend in college (Yup–Univeristy of Wisconsin, I’m a Badger!) whose parents were immigrants from Germany. The first time I met my friend Heinrich’s parents, his mom snickered and asked if I knew what my name meant. She told me the literal translation and then said it meant someone in my early family was a grave digger, because ‘God’s Acre’ is a cemetery.

Names…

Early in the middle ages, people took on last names. Prior to that, the population of a village was small enough that only first names were needed. Eventually, to avoid confusion, people began to add a bit of explanation to the first name to avoid confusion over similar or same names. So, each Joe (if there were more than one Joe in town) became Joe the Butcher, Joe the Mason, and Joe who is from Kesseling (Joe Von Kesseling).

Grave digger?

In our case, Gottsacker, or God’s Acre, could well mean a person who works in a cemetery. But, God’s Acre also means ‘beautiful plot of land’. Since we came from a wine-making area of Germany in a village surrounded by small vintner’s plots, our name means ‘beautiful plot of land’–a reflection of what our ancestors did for a living. Today, literally hundreds of years after our ancestors, there are over 20 small grape-growing plots in Mayschoss still owned and tended by Gottsackers.