While not occurring in large number, the Loes surname is encountered throughout the United States and Canada, most of which have roots in areas of Europe that were at one time under Prussian influence. The Loes surname is found in early English records (Faith Loes, circa 1597 Ipswich, Suffolk, England) and in areas of northeast Germany. Those Loes families I am particularly interested in originated in Luxembourg, in the region around Medingen and Contern. Many decendants of my ancestors still live in Luxembourg. The predominant pronunciation is 'less' as in "not as much". However, some families prefer the 'lose' to rhyme with hose pronunciation. Another major branch of the Loes decendants have maintained the spelling Lies with a pronounciation "lease".
Because of the Franco-Prussian wars and changing political influence, many name variations were encountered, depending upon contemporary authority in power. For instance, the same person may be Pierre, Peter, or Petrus depending upon whether the priest making the entry in the baptism, marriage, or death record chose to write respectively in French, German, or Latin. Many towns are still known by both their German and French names, even as the state of Luxembourg had the contemporary spelling Luxemburg during much of its history. The name Loes appears with several variations such as: Liess, Lees, Les, Los, Loss, Löss, Loesse, Less, Lesch, and Loesch. The Loesch variation seems to have been prevalent during the years of Napoleonic influence. Many of these variations are a result of the transliteration of the German script of: L, O with an umlat, i.e. ö, and a final S or sometimes what appears as a final double S (ß). The closest English transliteration is Loes and was the form generally used by the immigrant when he wrote his own name. The phonetic American spelling, as was sometimes written by others was Less. One variation of Loes to Less occurred in the Cascade, Iowa area when two Matt Loeses were frequently getting each other's mail. One decided to end the problem by changing the spelling of his name to Less.
My earliest records at present date back to Jacobus Liess, who was born in the 1640s in Strassen, Luxemburg. His wife was Catharine. I am indebted to Anne Err-Loes of Luxembourg for this very early information. I am also indebted to many other people who contributed information to this document. I hesitate to mention names because so many have been involved over the years that I cannot recall all of them and I am at great fault for not being meticulous is in keeping detailed notes on each item of information and its collaboration. Nevertheless, I will take the risk and mention a few instances because the excitement I enjoyed when I obtained that information was so memorable.
First, we all owe a debt to our ancestors and their contemporaries who took the time to record those births, marriages, and deaths. Without those records, our genealogy would be very disappointing.
Next, I want to mention Michael J. Neiers, who in the early 1900s prepared a genealogy of the Neiers and Loes families. This provided a starting point that bridged the distance back to Luxembourg.
Some others who provided significant quantities of information that was key to tying together the many families are: Father Pierre Marten of Burmerange, Luxembourg, who provided many details on the family of Michael Loes and Margaret Entringer; Father John Wey of Trintingen, Luxembourg who provided much information on the Neiers family; Mrs. Wilfred Knepper of Dubuque, Iowa, who helped me with the Nicholas Loes and Margaret Gehrens descendants. I must mention Mark Loes, then of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and now of California, who helped me with many of the obscure connections within the Neiers and Loes families, who filled in much of the information on the Mathias Loes and Margaret Neiers family, and who most of all, rekindled my enthusiasm for the Neiers/Loes genealogy. Note that he did this twice, once in 1985 and again as of this writing in 1999. I am especially indebted to Mrs. Anne Err-Loes who helped tie together two Loes families that I knew had to be related, each with roots in the same Luxembourg locations, and each with contemporary migrations to the eastern Iowa. I must mention Joy Pealer because of the extensive information she recently provided me on the "other half" of Dubuque County that I previously did not know were part of the Loes family.
Currently my cousin Paul Neiers of Cascade is a major contributor of families of Loes relatives in the Dubuque County area. He has communicated with many and continues to provide information. In a similar manner, Mrs. Suzanne Blum of Dubuque is also active in helping me fill in the many details and correcting my many mistakes.
A recent find has been a connection with the Lies branch of the family descended from Henrici Ließ. David Lies provided me with this information.
"Henrici Ließ, b. 2 Mar 1687, Straßen, Canton of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. He married Margaretha Hentges, Jul 1729, in Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, b. abt 1685, d. 29 Mar 1753, Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, buried: 29 Mar 1753, Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Henrici died 15 Feb 1770, Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, buried: 15 Feb 1770, Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Theodore Lies, b. abt 1740, Altlinster, Canton of Grevenmacher, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He married Margaretha Steimetz, 26 Oct 1772, in Haller, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, b. 31 Jul 1753, Haller, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, (daughter of Johann (Js) Steimetz and Maria Lannen) d. 2 Oct 1808, Haller, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, buried: 3 Oct 1808, Waldbillig, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Theodore died 14 Nov 1815, Waldbillig, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, buried: 14 Nov 1815, Waldbillig, Canton of Echternach, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg."
To all that have contributed information, I say a loud THANK YOU!! I also beg forgiveness for mistakes, which I am sure I have many. Yet, I want to make this information available and hope that when you discover errors you will inform me that I may correct them. I also am soliciting any additional information that the reader may be able to provide that I may continue to make this a complete record of the Loes family.
With its documented origins in Strassen, Luxemburg, a town about 4 km west of Luxembourg City, the family moved east to the Contern and Medigen area. Contern is about 9 km southeast of Luxembourg City. Most of the descendants of Jacobus and Catherine lived in that southeast corner of Luxemburg, with such towns as Moutfort/Mutfort, Waldbredimus, Syren, Assel, Bous, Remich, Erpeldange, Dalheim, Filsdorf, Roedt/Trintingen, Hassel, and Burmeringer/Buermerange in the far southeast corner on the Mouselle River bordering France and Germany being listed as birth, death, and marriage locations for both the Loes and Neiers families. Burmeringer was the last residence of my direct Loes ancestors before they emigrated to Iowa.
The Loes surname has many variations among the records. Ones I specifically have encountered are: Lees, Leesse, Les, Lesch, Less, Lesse, Liess, Lies, Lis, Liss, Loes, Loess, Loesse, Löss, Lösse, Luss, Lüss . Modern surnames are Loes, Less. or Lies
Achen; Baptiste; Bauck; Bauer; Beck; Bell; Brandenburger; Braun, Brown; Byrne; Caudy; Christoff; Colling; Crim; Curtin; Dehner; Engler; Ernster; Faber; Ferguson; Gasper; Gaynor; Golobitz; Gotto; Green; Habay; Hanten; Hayes; Heer; Heiderscheid, Heiderscheit; Hess; Honebaum; Hosch; Hunter; Jesson; Kalmes; Kauder; Kayser; Kelly; Kemps; Kleyer; Knepper; Krier; Lauterborn , Lauterbour, Lauterbur; LeGrand; Leytem; Link; Massar; Mathews; McMahon; McVay; Menster; Michael; Miller, Muller; Moes, Moos; Nank; Neiers; Olsem; Padhaski; Paullain; Peters; Pier; Pitz; Post; Potter; Reese; Reiling; Reistoffer; Reuter; Ries; Ruden; Sadler; Schlentz; Schlueter; Schmit; Schmitt; Schot; Schrup; Schuster; Schwind; Seery; Seymour; Shaffer; Simon; Skelley; Smith; Steiner; Strang; Takes, Teckes, Toekes; Tangen; Theisen; Thill; Till; Weber; Welch; Welfringer; Whitney; Wolers; Yenni; Zenner
According to Anne Err-Loes , the Loes family of the Geneva area continued until the beginning of the 17th century. Some prospered whil others were very poor. The poor members emmigrated to France, Luxembourg, Germany, and Belgium.