My name is Renier Lombard
and I am the Webmaster of this site.
My dad, Chris Lombard (Barend Christoffel), started the search for our ancestors and family. He has done most of the ground work in mapping the family tree. We still have many gaps and would love any information or photos. Click on the "family tree" link to see what and who we have mapped so far. For the record, as far as I know, most of us are Afrikaans speaking, but for interest's sake, I will leave the wording here in English.
If you have any comments or feedback about this site, please click here to contact me. Our family tree is posted online on this site! There are 74 names in our family tree. The earliest event is the birth of Moïse Lombard
(1578). The most recent event is the birth of <Private> Sproule
(Sep 3 2007). The site was last updated on Nov 8 2011, and it currently has 20 registered member(s). If you wish to become a member too, please click here.
Enjoy!
Lombard:
1. French and English (also common in Ireland): ethnic name for someone from Lombardy in Italy. The region is named for the Germanic tribe which overran the area in the 6th century ad. Their name is attested only in the Latinized form Langobardi, but is clearly a Germanic name meaning 'long beards'. Early immigrants from Lomardy to London were often involved in banking and money lending, and the name came to be used from the 14th century onward as a generic term for a financier.
Eben Lombard recently pointed my attention to a fascinating piece of family history. I thought I’d share it. For as long as I can remember, friends and foreigners alike, always had a little “joke” about long beards when they heard my surname. Ironically enough, as it turns out, they might have been closer to the truth than they thought.
The following is an excerpt from the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, about the “long beards”:
“The fullest account of Lombard origins, history, and practices is the Historia gentis Langobardorum (History of the Lombards) of Paul the Deacon, written in the 8th century. Paul's chief source for Lombard origins, however, is the 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum (Origin of the People of the Lombards).
The Origo tells the story of a small tribe called the Winnili dwelling in southern (Scadanan) (The Codex Gothanus writes that the Winnili first dwelt near a river called Vindilicus on the extreme boundary of Gaul.) The Winnili were split into three groups and one part left the native land to seek foreign fields. The reason for the exodus was probably overpopulation. The departing people were led by the brothers Ybor and Aio and their mother Gambara and arrived in the lands of Scoringa, perhaps the Baltic coast or the Bardengau on the banks of the Elbe. Scoringa was ruled by the Wandals, and their chieftains, the brothers Ambri and Assi, who granted the Winnili a choice between tribute or war.
The Winnili were young and brave and refused to pay tribute, saying "It is better to maintain liberty by arms than to stain it by the payment of tribute."
The Wandals prepared for war and consulted their god Godan (Odin), who answered that he would give the victory to those whom he would see first at sunrise. The Winnili were fewer in number and Gambara sought help from Frea (Frigg), who advised that all Winnili women should tie their hair in front of their faces like beards and march in line with their husbands. So it came that Godan spotted the Winnili first, and asked, "Who are these long-beards?" and Frea replied, "My lord, thou hast given them the name, now give them also the victory." From that moment onwards, the Winnili were known as the Langobards (Latinised and Italianised as Lombards).”
