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In reply to by Roy Schlachter

Amdur was the way that Yiddish-speaking Jews of Eastern Europe pronounced the name of the town Indura. In Yiddish, the n and m sounds often interchange. Thus, in Yiddish the name was spelled Aleph, Mem, Daleth, Resh--or Amdur.

At the beginning to the 19th century, the Russian authorities mandated that Jews adopt fixed, unchanging family names. Until that time, most Jews did not have family names. Rather, they were known religiously according to the system used since Biblical times. That is, X son of Y (e.g., Isaac son of Abraham). Within a community, however, they often needed a way to distinguish in every day life between individuals with the same given name. Thus, a man named Moshe who had come to that town from another place might be known as "Moshe from Amdur." Or, Moshe the glazier, etc. Thus, when forced to adopt fixed family names, many Jews took place names---but never the place where they lived at the time, but rather, the place where they had been born --and from which they had moved.

It seems, therefore, that in your family the story of the name change from Amdur would not refer to a town (which never did suffer a name change) but likely is a true story. If you are interested in trying to explore this further, let me know and I will see if I can help you.

Sallyann

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