Truwert

This unusual surname would seem to be a recent Anglicization of an ancient 12th Century occupational word "truwer", which described a travelling minstrel. Although the derivation is Polish-Russian, the origins lie with the pre 10th Century French "trouvier". The early theatres did not recognise national boundaries, and they travelled endlessly around the "civilised" world from Moscow to Madrid, and south to Constantinople. Perhaps not surprisingly, the name recordings are rare and erratic in any spelling forms, although it would seem that the most regular recorded form is as Truwart(z). However, it cannot be ignored that the modern form is very close to the English Trewitt, a locational name from Northumberland, although no link has been proven. A Coat of Arms was granted to a German, Johannes Truwere, in circa 1750, but no recordings have been definitely established in any Baltic country, including Russia. This is not, however, surprising, the recordings in these countries were often destroyed by war in 1939 - 1945. Curiously, in its original spelling (French) the name is recorded at Northholt, Middlesex, on October 27th 1584, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Heinrich Joseph Truwartz, which was dated May 30th 1841, a christening witness at Weiden Koeln, Rheinland, during the reign of Czar Nicholas 1 of Russia, 1825 - 1855. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.