When Elisa Maurer was born on 24 April 1857, in Schmiedrued, Aargau, Switzerland, her father, Samuel Maurer, was 41 and her mother, Maria Maurer, was 37. She died on 14 February 1863, in her hometown, at the age of 5.
German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): occupational name for a mason, especially a builder of walls of stone or brick, from an agent derivative of Middle High German mūre, German Mauer ‘wall’ (from Latin murus ‘wall’, especially a city wall). In the Middle Ages the majority of dwellings were built of wood (or lath and plaster), and this term would have specifically denoted someone employed in building defensive walls, castles, churches, and other public buildings. This form of the surname is also found in some other European countries, e.g. in France (Alsace and Lorraine), the Netherlands, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Slovenia (see also 2 below). Compare Mourer and Mowrer .
In some cases also an Americanized or Germanized form of Slovenian Mavrer or Mavrar: occupational name of German origin (see 1 above), at least in some cases applied as a translation into German of the Slovenian surname Zidar .
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