The Streetman Name
Note: With all the following being said, I can only refer to one line added by my Mother, Doris Streetman Dea, to my Grandmother Streetman's Bible, which reads, "Papa's people full blooded German."

The Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged) has an entry for Streetman as a class of policemen in London in the 1600's being known as Streetmen, who were to watch over the cart men to see that business was being conducted properly. In another historical source written in 1884 by Charles Bardsley entitled "English Names Their Source and Significations", the author implies that the names ending with "man" often arose from the location of someone's residence, i.e, someone near a Brook was Brookman, etc.,...He does not discuss Streetman specifically, but does lump it in with names that arose from location. Maybe our ancestors had the only residence on a street in a business district somewhere. Let's hope they weren't living "on the streets", as in, homeless!!! This of course is not feasible.  There were too many of them!!
It also seems possible that Streetman could have been an anglicized version of Straatman, Stratamann, etc.,... of German origin. Some years back a research was done as far back as the first "stratman" and it was found he was born in Amsterdam in 1829 with the name of Streetman. I found William Geter and Rody Strattman in the LDS library, and it was evident that this was W G Streetman and wife. An 1877 newspaper account gave two other variations of the spelling, Streitman and Streatman. I found the spelling "Streatman" used in several Civil War Records relating to our ancestors. I have also read where the name is described as German by way of the "Black Irish", which I understand are Irish people of German descent? Still other "Black Irish" are described as Irish people who have dark hair and possibly darker complexions than the fair skinned Irish. They tend to come from Donegal and surrounding areas in Ireland. In one of the many gen-web forums, I found this post: My great-grandfather Heinrich Christoph Stradtmann briefly anglicized "Stradtmann" to "Streetman" after he immigrated from Germany to Ohio in 1847. He finally changed it back to the old form, except that one "n" was dropped. There are several Streetman [or variations] births in Europe on record.
John Streetman - Christening 26 Dec 1791 Devonport, Morrice St - Wesleyan, Devon, England
Moses Streetman - Chr.. 16 July 1743 London, Saint Christorpher Le Stocks, London, England
Amelia Francisca STRETMANN - Chr.. 1 June 1845 Westminste, Saint Anne Soho, London, England
Also STRATMANN - 1787 Westfalia...STRIETMAN - 1835 Netherlands.... STRATMANN - 1728 Westfalia, Germany. Strietmans are also found in 1766, 1763 and 1754 in Germany.

I have also seen on the internet a copy of the baptism records of the Maurice Street Wesleyan Church, Devonshire, Devon, England which shows a John Streetman, born Nov 28, 1791 to Joseph and Mary Streetman, and baptized Dec 26, 1791. This would be concurrent to some of the Streetmans settling into Georgia at the end of the 1700's and early 1800's. Maybe Joseph is a brother of one of the Streetman's in the USA who never left England?

Back to what my Mother wrote in my Grandmother Streetman's Bible, which reads, "Papa's people full blooded German." I have no idea where she obtained or assumed this information. This is yet to be researched.

HOME