*[Das ist schade.]
Dr. Steirle’s comments continue:
"The prefixes, -or, -ur, and -ey, are not German. I have never come across the name Barler or Berler. The only one that seems to make sense to me is Perler. Since “die Perle” is equivalent to the English “pearl”, Perler would be someone trading or having to do with pearls. But this does not have a long “a”.
"It’s a pity you didn’t find the spelling Parler in the records. With the exception of the change of the P into B (but this is understandable), this name seems to me to be the most logical to have become Barlow. The name Parler does exist in German. In the Middle Ages, the French word “Parlier” was used for the representative of the Church Masons’ Guild. At the beginning of the 14th Century, one Heinrich Parler was a master builder (I don’t know whether it would be correct to say architect) for the Cologne Cathedral. His grandson, Peter Parler, was born in Schwaebisch Gmuend in about 1330 (not very far from Boennigheim) and continued to build the St. Veit Cathedral in Prague. He died there in 1399."
[From a message on the GERMANNA_COLONIES Mailing List at Rootsweb, in reply to John and Dr. Steirle, from Thom Faircloth, on 25 Jan 07: "This is interesting John and Dr. Steirle. The word to describe the mortar dressing between bricks is perling. So a Parler was a brick-layer or mortar-dresser. The coincidence is that 4 years ago when we were at Kloster Maulbronn, in the Monk's area of the cathedral, we saw a stone carving of a crucifix that was carved by a man named Parler. I don't remember the first name. I remember thinking that perhaps this is where our Barlow came from. Is Maulbronn in Swabia? Thom."]
"So Parler would seem to me the most possible origin of Barlow.
"The name Boehler that you [John B.] suggested doesn’t make any sense to me.”
[I was out in the Pennsylvania Dutch country yesterday with a German visitor. Klaus Strehkle is a professional photographer who is here in America to judge a photographic show held by the Delaware Photographic Society. He is a world traveler, but the Pennsylvania Dutch country was new to him. I work in the Delaware Photographic Society and I was helping to entertain him for the day.
The help and reactions that we have received from German nationals have been so good that we are eager to do something in return.
He seemed to like all thing Amish, even their mules and clotheslines. He has spent quite a bit of time in Strasburg, which has many older buildings, especially from the 1800's. Eventually, we got to the Hans Herr House, which is an excellent example of medieval German architectural. - John]
*[That’s a pity.]
(25 Jan 07)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.