Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>> Fiddler on the roof, hm? :)  No Jewish ancestors, at least not that I
>> know of.
>=20
> I know a family from germany named Fiedler that is definitely jewish.
>  I also remember that being the name of a german character in some
> movie where the character was jewish, so I thought it a possibility.=20
> I realize some names go both ways but some are pretty definative.=20
> For example, "Goldstein" is german meaning gold stone, but so far
> I've only run into jews with that name, no non-jewish germans.  On
> the flip side I haven't run into a jewish Krause, but several germans
> with that name.

Yes... Fiedler seems to go both ways. FWIW, names that indicate a
profession or activity seem to be common in non-Jewish German names:
M=FCller, B=E4cker, Bauer, Bader, ...

Gerhard

--=20
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