any genealogists here, i need help with a surname?

Question

the surname is: BERLEN

houseofnames.com may be wrong

Answer 1

I can only guarantee one thing about the name...it's not the original spelling. If you can give us the history of the people you know who bore that name, we'd be more than happy to help you trace it. It's possibly from anywhere from eastern France to somewhere in Russia. The B could have originally been a V or even a W. The -EN may have been the original, but it also could have been -ING. There could a -OWICZ or a -SKI at the end that got chopped off. We won't know until we track the man who brought the name to North America.

You did realize one lessen well, though. House of Names, Swyrich and the like are in the business of selling stories. They twist reality to make it fit what they have, rather than looking for the truth.

Answer 2

Genevieve's Mom is very correct. The best thing to do is to trace your family.
If you ever wish to do that, there are lots of people on this board that can give you a lot of good ideas and advice. Just ask.

You might want to read the link below from the National Genealogical Society

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerpsst.cfm

As you see people who sell surname products on the web cannot solicit your business the same way by mail or they could the prosecuted for mail fraud.

Answer 3

May I suggest -- if your surname were hill, rivers, baker, wheeler or smith, would knowing the surname in detail be of any help with genealogy research?

Do you have a problem locating historical records on a particular Berlen? Who where when? Family details? That's what genealogy researchers can maybe help with.

Are any of these people on 1850 US Census of any interest to you?
Bolan Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1810 France
Catharine Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1834 France
Louisa Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1850 Massachusetts
Mary Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1836 France
Mary Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1810 France
Orcutt Berlen Springfield, Hampden, MA abt 1839 France
Henry Berlen Elizabeth, Allegheny, PA abt 1842 Germany

There is also the Mighty Issue of Spelling Vagaries.

Answer 4

www.familysearch.org had listings for the name BERLEN in several countries---Sweden, England, USA, Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the Ukraine (once a part of Russia when it was known as USSR). There were also several alternative spellings of the name: BERLIN, BURLON, BURLAND, BORLAND, BERLEIN, BURLIN, BORELAND, BURLEIN, & BURLAN.
The earliest date I saw given was 1551. So, if you have names, birth and death dates, and/or countries, this is the place to go. It is free and has listings for Pedigree, the International Genealogical Index, Social Security Death Index, Ancestral files, and census records from just about anywhere.

Answer 5

No name meaning found on Ancestry.com

Place of
Origin BERLEN Immigrants
Germany 2


Port BERLEN Immigrants
Liverpool, England and Queenstown, Ireland 2
Nassau, Bahamas 1

Don't Fall in to the "coat of Arms" or "Family Crest" trap!
Most of the time it would have more meaning if you drew it yourself.

The best way I know for you to learn about your roots is to:

Build your family tree on line.
You can do this for free on:
http://www.tribalpages.com/
Start with yourself, then attach living family members.
Find out all you can about you family from living membes, then attach it to your tree.
Now it is time to look for historical records and attach the info to your tree:


It is ALL about census records, and other historical records!

You might get lucky and others may have done some work on your family tree. Google family members names ie. "Mary Smith" + "family tree"


Free sites:

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=27399&o_lid=27399

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/

http://www.cyndislist.com/

ect.

The time may come when you want more information than you can find for free. When this happens you can back up your "tribalpage" tree to your computer on a "GEDCOM" file
You can then go to (I think it is the best payed site)

http://www.ancestry.com/

upload your "GEDCOM" file
and start to work!
you might need to make a few ajustments to your tree to make it look better.

Answer 6

Here's' an article about finding hte meaning and origin of your surname:

http://www.squidoo.com/surname-meaning-origin/

Good luck,
Dave
--
http://www.familypulse.org

Answer 7

Berlen is from Germany and if you go to www.thetreemaker.com you can see your family crest/coat of arms