Eighner Surname Home Page

These pages are about people bearing the surname Eighner who are not Lars (Laurence Vail) Eighner. This page is a result of an inquiry sent to me (Laurence Vail "Lars" Eighner) by Steven Arthur Eighner. Neither one of us knows much about the Eighner family or the Eighner surname, and we would both be glad to hear from people who know more.

First, if you happen to be an Eighner-not-lars, I want to apologize to you for hogging the web search engines. In researching these pages I am acutely aware that it is really hard to find Eighners-not-lars in all the references to Eighner-that-is-lars. Even putting -lars in the search box does not help much. I did not want fame; I wanted the money. And hardly any of the sites containing my name profit me in any way.

I'm no genealogy buff. I just happened to have the server space and the ability to use it. If there is a passionate genealogist in the family, please take this off my hands.

This page is in a hermetically sealed part of my web site. There are no links back to my home page (which some people may think contains items not suitable for children). Adults should be able to figure out how to get to my home page if they are interested.

There are so many links about Lars on most search engines that it may be difficult for most people to find links about other Eighners. This section contains links and brief descriptions about mention of other Eighners on the World Wide Web. I have no control over these other sites, but I will remove links about you if you object. If you know of links not listed here, please let me know.

This was the subject of Steven's original query which resulted in my composing these pages. All we have so far are legends and guesses. We are happy to have your legends and guesses too, and we would be even happier to have verifiable facts about the Eighner name and our relationship to European Eighners and relatives, who we suspect exist, who use other spellings of the name.

This name has many spelling variations including, to name a few, Eighnor, Agnor, Agner, Aigner, Aighner, Ighner, Igender, Agender, Aegender. There are also many transcriptions which seem to be simple mistakes (such as Eighmie, which occurs in one of my family's census records). Finally, there are some similar names, such as Eichner, which result in names being exchanged temporarily or permanently through various kinds of mistakes. Some of the Eighner variations are not to be considered mistakes, made by illiterate people or careless bureaucrats, but are merely translations in the local dialect (as for example, sometimes Smith is merely a translation of Schmidt). There are also names which are spelled the same as some Eighner variants but which have no know connection at all, such as the Scottish name Agner. Although it is very unlikely that someone hearing another name pronounced AG-ner would write it as 'Eighner,' 'Eighner' may be a mistranscription or a misspelling of a few other names; that is, the same clerk who transcribes 'Eighner' as 'Eichner' might well transcribe 'Eichner' as 'Eighner.'

This site is about the surname when it is spelled Eighner, although in a few cases some groups with similar spellings are discussed.

The name is pronounced AG-ner by many who bear it. I pronounced it EYE-ner in my brief flirtation with fame because that seemed easier on journalists.

The most recurring legend of the meaning of the name, supported by some scholarship, is that it means "freeholder," or in other words a farmer or peasant who works land that he owns without paying rent or tribute and that he may have the right to transfer. If this is correct, then the name may have adopted independently by a number of different families that were not related, as for example, "Smith" might have be adopted by a village smith who was not related to smiths in other villages who to the name "Smith."

People who came to America with the name Eighner or its equivalents came from places that are now France, Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy. These places have belonged to many different states, many of which no longer exist in any form. While the languages they spoke are usually identified on forms as French or German, it should be recognized that these categories included a wide variety of local dialects.

The policy of this page is not to identify any minors. Names, addresses, email addresses, and links to web pages belonging to minors will not knowingly be published here, and will be removed immediately if I discover they have mistakenly been placed here.

This site will contain information and professional contact information about living adults who offer goods and services to the public or hold positions of public responsibility acting in their professional capacity. One of the purposes of this site is to help people find Eighners who are not Lars. These listings will be removed upon request of the person they are connected to.

This site will publish names and other identifying information about other adults who consent to being included here. That permission must come from the person identified and can be withdrawn at any time.

To be included or removed send a request by email or write:

If you send email please include a valid return email address for verification so I can prevent malicious listings or delistings.

This site contains lists of links to pages mentioning Eighners who are not Lars. I do not screen all of these to see if they violate my policies. Some of the links may be gathered electronically, I do not always review every linked site, and the target of the link can change, so you should beware of the possibility that some of these links lead to adult material or fraud sites. I will remove any of these upon request of the owner of the site linked to or the Eighner named on the site, or if I discover the Eighner named is still a minor in my best judgment.

This site contains transcriptions of various published articles and public records. While I will attempt to edit these articles to conform to my policies, it is likely I will miss something or make some mistakes. Please call my attention to any violations. No representation of the accuracy of the transcriptions of these documents: I can err in transcription, and sometimes errors occurred in the original. Please consult the original documents for any purpose other than idle curiosity.

This site will identify persons who are deceased and in some cases persons I assume are deceased. In some cases I may have guessed wrong and in other cases I may have found death records for the wrong person or made some other mistake. Please call these errors to my attention.

In genealogy charts and narratives Living males will be identified as LivingMale. I may also include a key number if things become too complicated. Living females will be identified as LivingFemale (Eighner) if born Eighner and since married, LivingFemale Eighner if born female and not married or if I have no information concerning marital status, and LivingFemale if not born Eighner. I am only an amateur with no particular training or expertise in genealogy. These charts contain many of my own assumptions and guesses and should not be relied upon for any serious purpose. I find serious mistakes or assumptions I have not realized I made nearly every time I review the charts and narratives.

Young people are assumed to be living unless I know otherwise, and this assumption is applied at the time I last reviewed a particular document. Because it is only my assumption, it may be wrong, or may have become untrue since I last reviewed the document.

If you have any objections or questions this policy or about anything on this page, please send me e-mail surname@larseighner.com Also send e-mail with any corrections or additions. You can also send me e-mail about other living Eighners, although I will not put their names up without their permission.

Finally, I am just one person with limited time and energy. While I will try to process removal requests and corrections as soon as possible, it may be a long time between updates with new listings or new information.