Background of the family name Morgenthaler
The name Morgenthaler is rooted in the description of a person coming from a geographical place: the person from the Morning Valley. (In German Morgen Tal with ancient spelling Thal). But where in German speaking Europe was this Morning Valley? Or were there several Morning Valleys and the name developed several times parallely? This site tries to answer such questions.
Morgenthaler in Switzerland
Every Swiss person has a so called Heimatort, a word that could be translated with place of citizenship. This place of citizenship is inherited from the father. If a woman gets married, she keeps her original place of citizenship and in addition gets the one from her husband. The place of citizenship was important in the past when there was no social walfare and no insurances. Persons who had lost their parents, families or existance had to be taken care of in their place of citizenship.
Studying the map below with all places in Switzerland where Morgenthaler persons have their places of citizenship, we can see there are two groups of places: three villages in the Swiss canton Aargau (AG) along the river Suhre and four villages in the canton Bern (BE) upriver the Langete. Comparing the family enblems of these places shows partial relations within the two groups. In this region full of hills there are many valleys that could have been the original Morning Valley. (Click map to enlarge)
St: Staffelbach (AG)
Ue: Uerkheim (AG)
Ur: Ursenbach (BE)
Wa: Walterswil (BE)
Dü: Dürrenroth (BE)
Af: Affoltern (BE)
Mu: The village of Murgenthal and the river Murg
Picture source: App "Atlas of Switzerland" from www.atlasderschweiz.ch
The next map shows the spreading of the name Morgenthaler in Switzerland in the year 2008. We can see a concentration in the same regions.
Morgenthaler in Germany
This next map shows the spreading of the family name Morgenthaler in Germany. It shows us a concentration in the southern region of the valley of the river Rhein; plus in Berlin.
Switzerland or Germany?
Referring to his sources, the author of this site believes that the family name Morgenthaler originally roots down to Switzerland, where it could have developed in one single region or parallely in two.
Apart from this, an additional development in southern Germany is thinkable. However, the author has no sources for this theory.
Please contact the site author if you have information about this subject.
Morgenthaler worldwide
The website Publicprofiler offers the possibility to visualise the global spreading of family names. The centre of the spreading of the name Morgenthaler is in the Swiss canton Bern. The spreading in Europe and wordwide shows immigration movement to typical Swiss immigration destinations. (Germany, France, Austria, England, USA, New Zealand) .
