Hartzenberg

This is an unusual surname of Germanic origins. It is locational or at least residential, and appears to originate from a place called Harzenberg or Hartzenberg, indeed there are recordings of Harzenbergers in the International Genealogical Index as shown below. However we have not been able to positively identify the place itself. It means the hard or bare mountain, or rather the village or place upon such a mountain. The surname itself does not seem to be recorded in any of the known directories of Germanic surnames, which cover Austria, Switzerland, and well as Germany itself, and parts of Poland, but this may be because it is a compound formed by two well known elements. In addition being locational, many dictionaries ignore such surname. Locational surnames are often or indeed usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original village to move somewhere else. In so doing they took or were given as their surname the name spelling of their original village, or what was thought to be the spelling. The earliest recording that we have is that of Francis Ferdinand Harzenberger, and his wife Anna Maria, at Landau in Pfalz, Germany, on August 15th 1715, when they were christening witnesses to their daughter Maria Francisca.