View Message

My grandmother's family had the surname of "Gallwas." They were from Germany and she had family that she said had recently (in her lifetime) come from Germany. However, in all German records I cannot find any place, anywhere, that documents a family with this surname actually lived in Germany aside from a single name on a ship registry. I have been told that a Friedrich August was sired in 1829 by a Philip Gallwas who was a potter in Dresden. I have no understanding of why I cannot find this name absolutely anywhere in German records, neither can I find any name anywhere in Germany that had this surname in the 19th century! There are now numerous families of Gallwas in the U.S. but none that were found before this date! I do not know the background for this name since now almost all my relatives on this family side are now dead. Does anyone have any ideas if this name Gallwas was actually a distortion for an entirely different looking surname??