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Generally the word Van or Von indicates royalty. It means of or from. So your ancestor came from someplace called Wert. .It may not be German either. This is a Northern European tradition.

"Van" is dutch and means of or from in English. "Von" is the German equivalent.

"Von Wert" is a German term and means "of value" - "von Wert sein" = "to be of value". But today this term isn't used very often anymore.

Nowadays most people say "wertvoll" = valuable, useful, worthwhile.

About surnames: I know that in German names the word "von" does not always indicate royalty. I too think it's possible that the ancestor came from a place called Wert. But if so, the name hasn't anything to do with royalty. In that conext it just means "xy from Wert".

Noble families in Germany are usually known to historians and if a family "von Wert" is existing, they are probably listed somewhere (Google might help).

But maybe it's not that complicated at all and the ancestor simply was called "the person of value".

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13y ago

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