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Re: Fillister
Possibly an English form of "fil laitière"? meaning, "over dairy". The surname Fillaiter is also found in the United States, in Ohio. This is also the same with Fillister. Now, the surname Filister is found in Minnesota, but I'm not too sure if the Filisters of Minnesota are English in origin or related to the Fillister of Ohio.
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Fil(l)ister is a Romanian Jewish surname as you can see at tinyurl.com/c73lkvj. The first bearer of the surname was Moses Filister as shown at tinyurl.com/d7sqslm. Fil(l)ister is probably a Romanian adaptation of German Phil(l)ister 'Philistine'.
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Hmm... It seems like the Filisters of Minnesota are of Jewish origin, from the place and name Philistine, but it doesn't seem like the FiLListers of Ohio and England are of the same origin. The origins of Filister seems to be different than the origins of Fillister. According to http://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=Fillister , the Fillisters of Ohio also takes the surname "Filliater", a French surname. Now looking at the Filliater surname, they are also from the same place, Ohio, both surnames Fillister/Filliater are only recorded there in the US. Now, for the British surname Fillister, I'd say it's either of French origin, or an occupational name of Old English origin. The "Philistine" Jewish origin for the British surname Fillister, I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I'll try to find out more.
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