A COMMON LUHRS ORIGIN

Was it Graf Luder of Stade?

As noted in The Name Lührs, there is consensus among the authorities that the name Lührs is derived from the name Lüder or Lüders. The earliest known use of that name is documented in a "Stammtafel" (genealogical table) of "Die Grafen von Stade" (the Counts of Stade). Stade is a small city near the south bank of the Elbe River, northwest of Hamburg (see map). This table identifies Luder, who was born 04 September 929 AD, as the founder of a dynasty that ruled the local area for over two centuries. During those centuries, several of the later Counts were also named Luder. [Note that this was apparently prior to the use of the umlaut to designate the guttural vowel.]

Certainly none of us has a shred of evidence indicating we are direct descendants of Count Luder of Stade. But, the name Lührs is widely known in Lower Saxony. Some of those Lührs family lines are likely related to one another. Those relationships probably occured prior to the available written records, and so cannot be proven. Yet, each of us has "loose ends" in our genealogies which represent possible links to what are now thought to be separate family lines. This would seem to be particularly likely when we are talking about close physical proximity. But, let's not be too hasty. The area under consideration represents a ring of towns with about a 50 km radius. But, until relatively recently, 50 km represented a very significant travel distance. Therefore, the prospect for definitively linking the lines shown here is small. The opportunity for linking these lines with other Lührs families who have not performed in-depth studies of their Lührs heritage is somewhat greater. It is in these slim hopes for success in our "hunt" that this website exists.

If Count Luder of Stade is not our common ancestor, then why is the concept of a "progenitor" introduced in this website? It is simply a mechanism that makes the preparation and maintenance of the database (and especially the name index) a lot easier. A common progenitor is a useful fiction. For that reason, we've avoided tieing any documented Lührs directly to that progenitor. We did not want to create the impression of direct descent. As a result, we introduced a second level of fiction. These are identified as the "Second Generation" -- the symbolic "fathers" of each of our documented family lines. It is from them that the documented members of each family line are shown as descendants.

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