Crest and Maps

Over the years I have been able to collect some maps and photographs of people and locations related to the Eymann family. I will try to put them here if there is time.

World map of living family members and genealogists

The Google Earth-related mapping tool Frappr is currently in a public beta phase. It allows to map our current location onto a world map, and attach pictures.

The Eymann Crest

To begin with, you might be curious about the meaning of the crest. In short, the Eymann Family crest shows a blue chevron for a river, flowing through a metaphoric "meadow" of three heraldic roses. (german: Au, bernese/swiss german: Ey).

In German, you can separate both syllables gaining "Ey" and "mann". The meaning of "mann" is just "man", denoting some sort of heritage or profession which is connected with the "Ey". As the Eymann family stems from Switzerland, and Swiss German sounds a little bit different from usual German, "Ey" is the same as "Au", which means meadow. Until today, those meadows who lie directly at the river banks and which are flooded during high water seasons are denoted as "Ey" in swiss maps. Which is what you see in the crest.

The blue stripe (called a “chevron”) is a stylized symbol for a river, which flows through a bend. The roses are heraldic, meaning that they are not really roses, but also stylized symbols for any plants, e.g. grass. So what you see in the crest is a bird's eye view of a river, flowing through meadows. Which explains the name in a visual way.

This kind of crest, which is constructed out of several heraldic modules, is very difficult to date. It is no clear when it was invented and what the reason for its existence is. The Eymann family have been poor farmers for most of the centuries, and a crest was mainly used by noble families (where it was necessary to mark their possessions even for the illiterate).

Maps on Eymann-related regions

The webserver of the Swiss genealogical society holds a historical map of Switzerland from 1536-1798 (520 kB).

Mapquest allows you to browse on the region. For Switzerland, I suggest you to start at Steffisburg or Oberdiessbach, just as our ancestors did. For Germany, I would suggest to start with the region around Otterberg.