Mapping Schoch and Maier together

Dear community of the Schochenmaiers, Schockenmaiers, Schocknmyers and Шохенмайеров, the story of Jacob Schochenmaier (1861) that our family took its origin from two families, namely the Schochs and the Maiers, who made business together, is still haunting my mind.

In this post, I decided to map the joint landscapes of the distribution of those two family names. My point is to localize the shared areas where the inhabitants named Schoch and Maier are to be found. With the help of German Surnames Atlas program (by courtesy of Prof. Konrad Kunze from the University of Freiburg, as the software is not publicly accessible), I could map the distribution of all (SHOCH and MAIER) spellings.

I have compiled three maps:

Nr. 1

Here, you see the distribution of all main spellings for the Maiers. Three centers are to be seen: the Meyers in the Northern Germany, the Meiers in Bavaria (South-East) and the Maiers mostly in the Southern Germany. This mapping proves that our SchochenMAIERs come from the Southern Germany. It's a very good for the beginning, as we met almost five different spellings. Under that perspective, we must conclude that the spelling SchochenMAIER should be historically right. 

Nr. 2

Here, you see the distribution of the Schochs. This map speaks for itself. Interestingly, we observe the dots where we found various Schochenmaiers in the archives:  to the West - near to French Alsace (early German part!), to the North- in the Northern Württemberg around Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg and Neckarsulm, plus the third center on the border with the Switzerland. 

I should add that the family name Schoch is very numerous among the Swiss people. Please, compare it with the distribution of last name Schoch in the Switzerland:

The SCHOCHs are concentrated mostly in the Northern part of the Switzerland. It's precisely at the same place where in Germany there is a big red dot in the South. Thus, it's one community and continuity of the Schochs. But we do not know if they are related to our Schochs who had married the Maiers.    

Let's localize two family names together. Here it is:  

There are lots of Maiers (blue), but less of Schochs (red). The overlapping is to be viewed in the same three centers like on the second map. The more two names are overlapped, the more it's possible that two families could marry each over.  You can see almost the quarter of red near France and even more than quarter to the North where Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg are situated. 

Those maps don't answer all our questions, but they confirm that we are on the right way! The Schochenmaiers do come from those areas because the could possibly marry each other there.  

It's getting more and more interesting! Let's going on)))