Willkommen! The Ibach welcome mat is out! Should you be an Ibach or related to one; this is your place! This Site is intended to provide an archive of world-wide information about the Ibach family. Persons interested in the Ibach or associated surname are invited to participate.When it's time to leave this Site, may you be better off than you were when you entered!
Pronunciation of the Ibach surname. If you do not have Realplayer, click on the icon.
Art Ibach's attempt at pronouncing his surname.

The Ibach Archives

The Ibach archives consists of genealogies, family histories, family recipes, family traditions, and a potpourri of Ibach related things. Our Webmeister, Art Ibach is known for his jokes - so you might find some of those here also.
Ibach Genealogies
Documents and Photographs
Ancestral Orgins
Family Recipes/Customs
Veterans
Genealogical Research in Germany
Additional Commentaries by Art Ibach
German/English On-line Dictionary
Universal Translator- Universal Übersetzer
Hot Links to Research Sites, and Ibach Family Member Home Pages.
Art Ibach - Der Webmeister
Donna Sneed - Editor and Contributor

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The Ibach (and variations) Surname

By Art Ibach
As with many surnames, there are various spellings for Ibach; IBACH, EBACH,YBACH, EYBACH, EIBACH, UBACH and the "americanized" EBAUGH. Ibach is a place name. A name given to people who came from villages of that name. Originally they were Ibachers or German for those people from Ibach. The word Ibach is a contraction of two separate words. The Germanic word, Bach, means brook, creek, small stream or rivulet. That word remains unchanged yet today.
The "I" is a different story. It is now believed to be a dialectic abbreviation of the present German word "Eibe" or yew tree. This word has evolved from ywa to Iwa to Iba to eibe. The oldest spelling for Ibach may have been Ywach; the 'Yw' for Ywa and the 'ach' for Bach. (The 'B' from Bach is commonly omitted in contracted German place names.) So what does 'yew brook' or 'Ibach' really mean? For this, we need to understand how places were named.
Early explorers/missionaries, usually were or had map makers who would note and name prominent mountains, water resources and other natural resource sites. When they named a small brook Ibach, they were really noting the location of a particular brook where yew trees could be found. These rare yew trees flourished only along certain brooks that had the right elevation and climatic conditions.
Why would medieval man care about these trees enough to name the spots where they grew? The heartwood of yew trees contained the strongest most resilient material available at that time for crossbows and longbows. Prized by archers and hunters alike. In fact, William Tell was purported to have lived near what is now Ibach, Schwyz, Switzerland.If the legend is true about William Tell shooting an apple off his son's head, it's likely he did it with an Ibach bow! So, where are all of these villages called Ibach?
The majestic Elk is prominent in the symbols of
our ancestral homelands.

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