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[Facts] LUTGARBA
Searching, looking for insight on family name. My great-great grandmother's name was Lutgarba Abreu. This is the best spelling of the first name I have been able to get. If anyone has any insight regarding the background of this name I would appreciate assistance.Peace
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Are you sure it was Lutgarba instead of Lutgarda? According to Slownik imion by Wanda Janowa et. al., Lutgarda is a feminine form of Luitgard used in Poland, Spain, and Italy.
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GARBA is a name element of its own right. The Germanic word *garba or *garva means "ready (for battle)". Names with the full element *garba are extremely rare. Usually it is shortened to GARU, GARO or GARI as a first element (Garufrid, Garoman, Garimar), the U, O and I being a linking vowel. As a second element *garba usually shrinks to -gar (Baldegar, Irmingar, Ortgar …). A lot of times this causes confusion with the element GER (gair), "spear, lance". Sometimes it is also found as -car and then could get confused with HARJA > HER like in Herbert.
So the famous Italian liberator (if this is the correct word) Guiseppe Garibaldi could derive the second part of his surname either from "ready" or "spear".This is taken from:
Ernst Förstemann: Altdeutsche Personennamen (1906)
Henning Kaufmann: Altdeutsche Personennamen, Ergänzungsband (1968)
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Perhaps there's a Luitgard lurking in there somewhere! I could see a B and a D being confused in some handwritings, and the -a ending is an obvious attempt to make it more feminine-looking. Click on the blue hyperlink.Gggranny's surname looks Portuguese ... if so, she'd be likely to have a saint's name. Good luck!
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Thank you for your contribution. Since I have limited information and only an elder aunt to give information.... I am searching for a needle in a haystack. But I am sure if I have come this far I will get where I need to go eventualy.Since she would have been alive in mid 1800, little hope of formal records. I do know that she was likely Jewish, thus the name Abreu, source of that name is from Hebrea. In Cuba and where she was born that would stand out. Wishing I could reach someone in that area and and obtain some info. Portuguese name? Possible, saints name? Not likely at this point.
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