Subject: Beauve or Beauvais or Pove or Povee (pronuciation Povay)
Posted by: Suzy
Message: Looking for any information on the following names Beauve or Beauvais or Pove or Povee (pronuciation Povay) as you can see over the years the spelling of the name has changes. The family originally came from France. They fled to Germanyin the 18th centruy because of their protestant religion, which was declared illegal in France. The name was originally spelled Beauve or Beauvais My forefather Nicolaus moved from Germany to Holland where his name was written down as Pove, later Povee. In Holland there are two branches of the family, one in the Amsterdam area and one who lived in the Amhem/Nijmegen region. Bother never knew about each others existance. The Amsterdam family there is a certain ship building tradition, the Amhem branch were mainly servants of nobility and gardeners.
A relative I just found in the Netherlands wrote to me and mentioned where the name Beauvais and the pronuciation (Povay)came from. In his letter he says
Beauv seems to be the oldest name in the Povee family tree. Of course we know that is French and could have been written Beauvais. As it is pronounced exactly as Povee. But Beauvais is a name like Smith in France. I guess we got stuck there.
If any one has any information that they would be willing to share....Please contact me at
Sweichers@aol.comThank you