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Kouf Family Tree

Kouf Family Tree

Robert Morton (View posts)
Posted: 5 Jan 2001 12:00PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Arndt, Buttorff, Caldwell, Hicks, Kouf, Maiolo, Mente, Mitstifer, Morton, Overdorf, Shatto, Smith, Stroble, VanHorn
If your last name is Kouf, or, if you are related to someone whose last name is, or was, Kouf, then you are connected to the Kouf Family Tree.
This is the only database of its kind on earth. Are you related?

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Robert Morton (View posts)
Posted: 1 Mar 2004 11:11PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kouf
I am still putting together the KOUF family tree. If you can help, please contact me. I am told the the name came from MacKouf, McKouf, or MacKeouf. I am not sure, and have never found such surnames and have found indications that the family came from France, possibly a French-german area. My gr.gr. grandfather is John Kouf, b. ca 1829 PA . John had Civil War service. Need more on his parents to let me go backwards. Have much Kouf data from John to date. John marr. Elizabeth Williams, of England, d/o John & Elizabeth, who came to America in 1840. Settled for a time in Clinton County, PA, near Lock Haven and was married in early 1850's to John Kouf there. submitted by Robert Morton Morton4@aol.com on 037/01/04 17:11:00EDT

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Ian Kouf (View posts)
Posted: 13 Jan 2005 11:57PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kouf
Hi, all you Koufs (all 13 of us.)

In reply to Mr. Morton's post, I am a Kouf, not by marrige, but through blood. I've been researching for a while where our family may be from, being such an odd little name noone can seem to pronounce (AKA, "cough" "kofe" "koof") or spell (Kous, Kaus, Kauf, Koup, etc...sigh). So, I took to looking at what Google had to offer and here's what I've found thus far:
1. The last known old world location of any Kouf's, historically, has been On Kato-Koufonisia, and Pano-Koufonisia in Greece, just shy of Naxos, in the Cyclades island chain.
2. There's a Kouf National Park in NE Libya, and I have no idea if it got it's name before or after the Island to it's north.
3. Kouf is another spelling for Qoph, a letter in the Hebrew Alphabet, with a numerical value of 100, meaning: "Holiness, holy, sacrifice (Korban), to erect, bring closer together, annul the limits, light, immaterial", as according to http://www.image-in.co.il/ART/Yasha/pages/kouf.htm

That's all I know so far, but it seems the Kouf surname is not actually from Scotland, but rather from the Meditteranean region. The Scottish theory stuck for quite a while, but after finding no such history of a McKeough clan in Scotland, Wales, Northern England, or Ireland, I was led to believe it may be from elsewhere. Interestingly enough, the massive migration north from Israel to Constantinople and down into the Cyclades seems to mesh up with the series of events noted sparsely all about the web. Hope I helped somebody.

Note: St. John, the author of the book of Revelations, is buried in Panos, West of Koufonisia. It also happens to be chock full of history going back to 7000BC.
-Ian

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Robert (View posts)
Posted: 3 Nov 2005 8:11AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: KOUF
I am quite sure that the KOUF surname is not the original name.
It may have been Coup, or Koup. I am fairly sure that whatever the original name was, that it is of German descent.
I have been working on this (my mother's side) family for about 15 years.

Robert

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Robert (View posts)
Posted: 3 Jan 2006 5:02AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: KOUF
Ian, please contact me asap. We have much to exchange.

Robert

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Ian Kouf (View posts)
Posted: 5 Jan 2006 6:18AM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kouf
Mr. Morton! Nice to see you're still vigilantly researching our roots, I've been doing what I can, but thus far I've found too much across the board to really nail down a home area for the surname 'Kouf'. I've read in several locations it's from high German kauf, for trading, French Kouf, in regards to the Herbraic alephbeth, Arabic for liar, Greek for hollow, and an Irish referance on Magoo.com:
Mac does not always become mag when used before vowels and aspirates. The name MacKeogh, according to MacLysaght, stems from Mac Eochaidh, just as does McGeogh, McGeough and McGough. Here are excerpts from pages 199 and 200 of Irish Families: Their Names, Arms and Origins (3d edition 1972):

"MacKeough, Kehoe ; O'Hoey, Hoy.

"Keogh, including Kehoe and Mac Keogh, almost equally common forms of the same Irish surname—Mac Eochaidh—just misses a place in the hundred most numerous names in Ireland. It is chiefly found in the province of Leinster, the spelling Kehoe being usual in Co. Wexford. Outside Leinster MacKeoghs are mainly located in the neighbourhood of Limerick : the place name Ballymackeogh is in Co. Tipperary, a few miles from that city. This was the homeland of one of the three distinct septs of MacKeogh. The second was in the Ui Maine group. Their eponymous ancestor was Eochaidh O'Kelly ; they were lords of Magh Finn and their territory of Moyfinn in the barony of Athlone, Co. Roscommon, long known as Keogh's Country, was popularly so-called even in recent times. The place Keoghville in the parish of Taghmaconnell took its name from them. The third and historically the most important sept were the MacKeoghs of Leinster. These are of the same stock as the O'Byrnes and were hereditary bards to that great family. With them they migrated in early medieval times from north Kildare to Co. Wicklow whence they spread later to Co. Wexford. . . .

"The cognate patronymic O hEochaidh is anglicized as O'Hoey and Hoy. The sept so named, which was the same stock as the MacDonlevys, was of such importance in early time that its chiefs were Kings of Ulster until the end of the twelfth century when their kinsman the MacDonlevy's superseded them in that dignity. . . ."

Frankly, I'm happy just knowing the name's still alive and kicking. I've pretty much given up on where it could be from, because to really know for sure, one would have to ask John Jacob Kouf, and frankly, he left no clue as to where he and his brother were from. I do know that his brother settled in PA around the same time he was recorded as living in SD. Due to the wide range of possible root origins for the name, from the Arab areas, to the Medditerranean region, Bavarian, French, and all the way up to the Celt/Gael region, it's really impossible to tell where we are from conclusively. Like I said, I'm just happy there are other Koufs out there who are interested. I do know we're not Chinese. So I guess that's the conclusion to my investigation. We're not Chinese...we're somethin', but it isn't Chinese.

-Ian
iankouf_55@yahoo.com

Re: Kouf Family Tree

Posted: 28 Jul 2013 3:18AM GMT
Classification: Query
May be of interest... found a Kouf listed in Austria.
And another in Bohemia.
Another from Norway.
One listed a small town near Stuttgart.
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