Miscellaneous

Why did the whole family live in the same house?

Near the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century, there was only a little emigration and recognition of birth-rights within the Basque region.

Therefore the brothers and sisters married and left their separate houses. They then stayed in the house with the brother who was the decided heir and his wife. They lived there, and were taken care of but never demanded any of their part of the inheritance since that would have called for the land to be divided and possibly sold.

All the names of farms with the suffix Borda have the same origin

In the ancient times, when the Basques have cleared the region to have enough agricultural areas, they settled pretty close to each other, near the central part of the village where, much later, was erected Church and City Hall. They created the farms for each family and the buildings for distribution (without a doubt they were modest). In addition to the fields for agriculture assembled near the house, was the land consecrated for summer pastures for the sheep and goats and for the chickens. Each family was given equal plots of land and further, a shed - "The Borde". Later, around the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the younger sons who did not have the inherited right to the main family house, were able to get their own plots of land and name them after the family plot, usually in reference to being a second son, the lesser, shed instead of house (Borde), the new name included the word Borda.

today most of those houses still stand.

Aniotzbehere and Aniotzbeherekoborda

Beheretchea and Beheretcheakoborda

("Ko" = "of")

futur of the name Aniotzbehere (Aniotsbehere)

Because of a mistake in a birth certificate for a certain part of the family, the letter Z in the family name was changed into S. Today can we see both spellings.

Here are the last descendants who can transmit the name in both continents.

In the USA

Franck (10-09-1947), great grandson of Juan Flacco

Nicholas (01-12-1978), son of Franck

Paul (07-15-1948), great grandson of Juan Gordo

In Argentina

Miguel, grandson of Michel, son of Victor

Victor (1971), son of Miguel

Jose (1976), son of Miguel

Ignacio (02-02-2000)

In France

Jean (8-18-1934), grandson of Michel

Jérome (05-04-1961), son of Jean

Jean-Claude (05-11-1938), great grandson of Michel

Alain (09-06-1944), great grandson of Michel

Sylvain (02-22-1972), son of Alain

Thibault (08-10-1997)

Daniel (07-06-1944), great grandson of Michel

Ludovic (11-15-1974), son of Daniel

Jean-Claude, Alain, Daniel and their descendants have the S in their family name.

In the US, their is no more descendant with the name Aniotzbehere from Francisco and those of Juan Gordo, his elder brother, all changed their name into Ansberry on 1931. Meanwhile Paul Ansberry, great grandson of Juan Flacco, and grandson of Julius who changed his family name, just changed back to the original and so increase the number of members called Aniotz(s)behere.

Here are the comments of Paul on this change :

"It's something I've been wanting to do since I was a young boy, so I decided that I would enter the new millenium with my family's original name. [...] I'm still the same man, but now feel more connected to who I am and where I came from.