Welcome to pegelow.net

pegelow.net is the new online version of the Pegelow POST. We look forward to your visits and hope you’ll contribute to our family archive.

Origins of pegelow.net

A few years ago I did a family newsletter for my Pegelow family while I was doing genealogical research. I am in my 60s now and all my old contributors from Dodge County, Wisconsin and Iowa have passed away. The only ones left represent Spaltholz family and the Libertyville, Lake County, Illinois family. They also dropped the "second e." This new site will be a continuation of the Post for gathering and sharing data of PEGELOW's and their connecting families. I would like to dedicate it to my original contributors and will list their names in the near future. Hope to hear from a lot of Pegelows in the near future willing to share data and only reciprocating researchers will have access to the online information.

About the Pegelow Surname

The name Pegelow is primarily considered to be of Slavic origin although there are some who believe it to be German. According to the Hans Bahlow lexicons of German and Pommeranian names, the name is Slavic and is a place name. I also have been told that the name has Wendisch origins and that the names with the "ow" ending would be Wendisch. That has yet to be proved and I have not done any research yet..

For those of you that believe that the different spellings are actually not of the same family, you have a rude awakening coming. The name has been found spelled on documents and census phonetically as Pagloff/Pegloff. The second e is silent and is probably the reason why it gets dropped quite often. Pronunciation is similar to the Russian names ending with ov, such as Romanov. A Pegelow that I had contacted in the late 1960s had told me that the name was von Pegelovski or a spelling close to it and that we may be of Polish, Russian, or other Slavic Origin. This has not been proved either way but I had found several such families within the state of New York but never contacted them. The common variations found in the German Church film records are Pägelow, Paegelow, Pegelow, Paeglow, and Peglow. Pegler/Pegeler is also a variation and I have found this to have happened within my own family at Pampow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In North American the variations increased considerably and I will go over these later.

What I do know is that there is a small village in Poland which is currently called Gogolewo, Wies. Pronounced Gogolevo. It was called Pegelow during the Prussian era and is less than 10 kilometers northeast of Stargard in the province of Szczecinskie. The closest town is Dzwonowo, the closest post office is Pezino, and there is a church, railroad station, and civil office at Gogolewo.

We are considered to be a rare surname but researching the name will never end. There is always more to find. As of 1972, there were less than 99 families with the Pegelow surname in the United States according to the U.S. Census. We know the name exists in Sweden, Germany, Canada, Brazil, etc. And I believe this is just the one variation.

We will be adding census index information in the near future. Unfortunately, due to the rarity of the Pegelow name, this listing will be very short. The first Pegelows did not enter the United States until the latter half of the 1800s. The earliest one I found was 1851 and the family settled at Manhatten, NYC, New York and is from Teterow and is related to my family. Recently I found that some might have arrived in the 1840's. I will gladly accept evidence of this if anyone has it to forward.