by Jan-Olov von Wowern

I will here use term "forefather" in sense of "founder", which, as used in nobiliary genealogical work, usually refers to person who was first ennobled or recognized as noble.

If headship of family is hereditary, you are most likely to find founding forefather by simply tracing family line which possesses headship backwards, until you encounter person who was ennobled or first recognized as noble.

If you know geographical place (country, county, city) where family was first identified, you may well search its history for family name in question in order to find your forefather. You should be aware of possibility of variant spellings. This is also how I found further information about founder of my own family. In official history of city of Antwerp, "Geschiedenis van Antwerpen", a monumental 9 volume work, I found a list of "sheriffs" of Antwerp who were also made Marquises (margraves) of Land of Ryen (the county surrounding Antwerp in medieval times). My forefather Gilles van de Wouwere was made a "Schout" of Antwerp and a Margrave of Land of Ryen in 1141, and his son Hendrik succeeded him in 1199.

by Jan-Olov von Wowern

The purpose of this article is to show what you should look out for if you are searching for an ancestor's surname and want to know if it is noble.

The most common noble predicates are "von", "de", "di" etc. (meaning "of") before surname. A predicate among your ancestors is by no means proof of nobility, and some families have wrongly assumed predicates to make themselves appear to be noble. In some countries noble families do not have any predicates, but are noble nonetheless. A predicate is an indispensable part of a surname if surname was originally constructed with it - if it has been assumed later (after family was ennobled or generally recognised as noble) it is sometimes called "prefix".