Meaning of the word "Ramsbroke"?

---

Clarification of Question by rich11771-ga on 16 Sep 2002 11:59 PDT

We have a house built around the 1880s located in Oyster Bay Cove, New
York.  We found a real estate brokerage listing on the house dated
around the 1930s indicating the name of the house to be "Ramsbroke". 
We are curious as to the origins and meaning of the word.


Thank you.

Hi-
I found no citation at all for "Ramsbroke" on Google.

I often research and write about old properties. Allow me to suggest a
few ways you might trace this name.

Start first with a local historical society.  Here in PA within
counties there are townships, many of which have their own historical
commission or at least a local "historian."  Next, move to the county
level.

Given that the reference you have dates only to the 1930's, you may
well be able to find a neighbor or other local resident who "knows the
history of the house."

Names of properties often reflect the owner's heritage -- a family
name-- or interest or favorite book. Several local names I can recall
were taken from books by Sir Walter Scott, a favorite author of the
landowner.

The name may also be a geographical reference...  for instance, "where
the rams cross the brook" or is "broke" perhaps a word in old English
or Welsh or the like?

Just a few hints.  Perhaps they will be of some assistance.
Anyway, the hunt is always fun.

Nellie Bly

Sometimes people named a house by combining part of the surnames of
husband and wife: for example the "Rams" out of "Ramsey" and the
"Broke" out of "Bolingbroke". If you could find the names of the
original owners, that might tell you more.

or maybe it was their attempt at spelling something else, maybe they
pronounced it differently or something foreign that became anglicized.

tho looking on google, Ramsbrok seems to be an old German surname. 
http://www.ahnenlotse.de/fafo_tt_tz.htm

There's a "chris Ramsbrok" listed on the american medical school for
University of Louisville 1892
http://www.library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/gfdb/r.asp