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Re: Reaser (and Levan)
in reply to a message by Stef
You are right, REASER would be RIESER in German (probably not Reiser, which is pronounced Riser).
There is the surname RIESE in Germany, and it originally meant a tall person. But RIESER is a name of its own right. There are several possible derivations, so pick what you like:

1. From a place-name Ries (Bavaria, Austria) or Riesa (Saxony)
2. From an area called Ries (around the town of Nördlingen, O umlaut, roughly between München and Stuttgart). This one is interesting, as the name of the area is obviously taken from the "Raeti", a tribe living in the Alps in Roman times
3. From Middle High German "ris" (twig, bush, cf. German "Reisig", same word as English "reed" btw), > dweller by a bush?
4. From Middle High German "rise" (water ditch)

Andy ;—)
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Levan literally means "the winnowing fan", a device for separating wheat and chaff. It is assumed to denote someone who made these fans. The name belongs to the far north of France, but the Huguenots would no doubt have carried it to the Protestant countries of Europe as well as North America.
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