Hammer Origin Summary

[Cindy Parish]

Ivar Ertesvag writes: In Scandinavian, hammer/hammar/hamar means hammer (the t
ool), but it also means cliff. The family names come from the latter meaning.
The Danish form will be Hammer, but there are not very many cliffs in Denmark.
Joe Gardner writes: The immigrant ancestor in my wife's Hammer line came here
c1805-1815 from Wittenberg, Germany. Another writer mentions Hammer Bible rec
ords in Indiana and Illinois journals. My Mary Hammer married my Adamson ances
tor in Indiana. Alf Christophersen writes that Hammers are listed in two and a
half columns in the Oslo telephone directory. Oystein Groevlen writes that th
e first people who emgigrated from Norway to America in 1825 were Quakers under
the leadership of Cleng Peerson. The reason for the immigration was religious
persecution.

Lastly, Kaare Lie writes that Mary Hammer was the sister of Lille Hammer. At l
ast, the origin of my Norwegian ancestor is solved. :-) By the way, my mother
calls our relatives in Minnesota our "viking relatives". :-)

Many thanks for everyone's responses!

Cindy Parish
Mt. San Antonio College
1100 N. Grand Ave.
Walnut, CA 91789 U.S.A.