The origin of the name
en centuries of obscurantism followed the fall of the Roman empire. Then, from the 14th until the 16th century, erudites, Italians first, French and Germans then, put again direct study of ancient litterature, Hebraic, Greek and Latin, in honour. This renewed interest for ancient civilisations was called Renaissance. At that time, study of Greek and Latin developed prodigiously . As a consequence of this renewed interest for dead languages, latinisation or hellenisation of family names became fashionable. This phenomenon was particularly tangible in Germany during the 15th and 16th centuries. Educated families translated their German surname into Latin or Greek. The Fischer [fisher] became Piscator , the Kaufmann or Krämer [merchant] Mercator , the Sänger [singer] Cantor , the Schwarzerd [black earth] Melanchthon and the Kuhhorn [cow horn] Bucer. People bearing the name Schneider [tailor] or one of its variants Schnieder, Schröder, Schnier or Schrier, seized by this fiever, changed their own name into Sartorius, a derived form of sartor which has the same meaning in Latin .
As a matter of fact, these latin translations had been used well before the Renaissance. It goes back at least as far as the 14th century. This is the case for the couple Schneider - Sartorius. The name Sartorius appears for the first time in 1381, in Germany, in Eschwege, about twenty kilometres from Kassel . The bearer of it was an Ekkehart Sartorius, a town councillor in Eschwege. Since then the name Sartorius can be followed in this town for about fifty years. So Lotze Sartorius, a burgess, could be met there in 1382, then Henrich Sartorius, prior of the Augustinians, between 1443 and 1447 and Johannes Sartorius, vicar of the general of the Augustinians in 1453 .
From the middle of the 15th century onward, the name Sartorius spreads all over Germany. In 1455 it can be found in this region of the upper Ruhr valley called Sauerland. Henricus Sartorius, a co-founder of the Cross brotherhood in Meschede , bears it. And, in 1459, Nikol Sartorius, from Dittenheim, in Bavaria, is listed among the people registered in Erfurt .
This only deals with individuals. This is still the case with most of the Sartorius' who can be met during the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1504, a Johannes Sartorius is a doctor of law in Lüneburg. In 1508, a Conradt Sartorius is the prior of the cloister of Goldbach, Bavaria. Also in 1508, a Zacharias Sartorius is a pastor primarius in Künzelsau. In 1518 a clergyman Sartorius can be found in Oldenburg. Another Sartorius becomes the chaplain of earl Christopher of Oldenburg in 1538. A Dr Johannes Sartorius, a clergyman in Bremen and then in Osnabrück, is alluded to in 1521. In 1525 a Dietrich Sartorius becomes the first protestant minister in Oberursel, after having been a priest in Mainz and Frankfurt . A Johannes Sartorius, born about 1500, a philologist and theologian, dies in Amsterdam in 1566 . A Balthasar Sartorius, born in Oschatz in 1534, becomes a professor of theology in Jena, then in Leipzig, before he dies in 1609 . His son Georg, born in Grimma in 1570, dies in 1627 as a pastor in Reinstedt. A Zacharias Sartorius is a pastor in Oberrimpach between 1571 and 1578. An Andreas Sartorius, born in 1562, dies in 1617 in Frankfurt an der Oder where he was a professor. Lastly, in 1568, a Johannes Sartorius is a deacon in Penig, where he dies in 1612 .
Figure 1: appearance of the name Sartorius in Germany from 14th to 17th centuries
Though this dry enumeration is far from being exhaustive. At least it shows that the name Sartorius could be met throughout Germany. It was frequently born by protestant clergymen. This can be easily understood. Of course a prerequisite was to know Latin, before thinking of translating his name into this language. In this respect, clergymen were in a good position. Moreover, Reformation then was a very recent phenomenon. In 1517, Luther had posted his 95 propositions, written in Latin, on the door of the church of Wittenberg's castle . Unlike their Roman Catholic counterparts, protestant pastors had no longer to remain single. As a consequence they had descendants who could then perpetuate the name of their ancestor under its latinized form.
All along the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century, Schneiders - Sartorius' hesitated between the German and the Latin form of their name. Here again examples could be multiplied. Let us simply mention Paul Schneider or Sartorius, an organist and a composer, born in Nürnberg in 1569 who died in Innsbruck in 1609. This is also the case for Erasmus Schneider or Sartorius, a writer, a musician and a composer, born in Schleswig about 1575 who died in Hamburg in 1637 . And Johann Friedmann Schneider, a professor of philosophy in Halle, born in 1669, still hesitated between both forms .
Figure 2: the Sartorius root families in Germany
From the 17th century onward, the form Sartorius took definitely prevailed for some people. Yet, all these Sartorius' did not have a common origin. Today not less than 12 different Sartorius families, represented by more than 1 350 individuals, can be found in Germany :
w one in Hohenstein and Langenschwalbach, in Hesse, tracked since 1470, a member of which emigrated to Paraguay .
w one in Kirchhain, in Upper-Hesse, tracked since 1570, a branch of which was ennobled by the king of Bavaria in 1827 under the name Sartorius von Waltershausen .
w one in Darmstadt, tracked since 1575, members of which emigrated to the Netherlands and Mexico .
w one in Franconia, tracked since 1583, which emigrated to Switzerland and a member of which settled in New York .
w one in Hachenburg, in Rhineland, tracked since 1595 .
w one in Franconia-Thuringia, tracked since 1610, members of which emigrated to Paris and America and other members of which founded lines in Vienna, Austria, and Malmö, Sweden .
w one in Aurich-Oldendorf, in East-Frisia, tracked sinced 1684. Several f its members emigrated to Illinois and it is still represented today in the United States .
w one in Bensheim, halfway between Darmstadt and Mannheim, tracked since the 17th century .
w one in Homberg, in Upper-Hesse, tracked since 1687, still represented in Germany, a member of which emigrated in the 19th century to Saint Louis, Missouri, United States .
w one in Coburg, tracked since 1739 .
w another one in Arnsberg, in Westphalia, tracked since 1757 .
w lastly one in Niederlosheim, in Saarland, tracked since 1758, still represented by teachers, engineers, Catholic clergymen and mayors .
Figure 3: expansion of the Sartorius families in Europe
Figure 4: current distribution of the name Sartorius in Germany 
During the 18th century Sartorius' appear in England. They likely were of German ascent. Actually, when the Stuart dynasty died out in 1714, the elector of Hanover acceded to the throne of Great-Britain under the name of George I. In his wake a significant number of Germans, mainly artists, moved to England. The composer Händel is the most famous example of this . As a matter of fact, several English Sartorius', who were painters of seascapes and horses of a certain fame, descended from Jacob Christopher Sartorius, an engraver in Nuremberg at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries. An admiral of the Royal Navy admiral also bore the name Sartorius .
Figure 5:paintings by Francis et John Nost Sartorius
During the 17th and 18th centuries, a Sartorius family could be also found in Visé, in the principalty of Liège. Father Sartorius is his most known representative. Accused of having slaughtered his mistress, he was condemned to capital sentence after a sensational trial. He died in Liège under horrible torture on 3rd March 1779. A brother of Father Sartorius, Gérard Joseph, led a more exemplary life. A doctor of medicine, he was ennobled by the emperor of Austria under the name of Josef von Sartori. This family likely died out with a Miss Virginie de Sartorius, born in 1828, a painter of flowers who used to display her works in Liège .
Figure 6: painting by Virginie de Sartorius
Let us also mention the existence of a Spanish Sartorius family likely also of German origin. His members bear the title of counts of San Luis and are grandees of Spain. In particular, this family gave Spain Luis Jose Sartorius Tapia, viscount of Priego and count of San Luis (1820-1871), minister and chairman of the Cortes. Today it counts two members who were the talk of the town. The first one is a barrister, Nicolas Sartorius, who became first vice-secretary general, i.e. number 2, of the Spanish communist party, in 1981. The second one is Isabel Sartorius whose love affairs upset with the prince of Asturias delit a certain press about 1992 .
Lastly, The Sartorius' who can be met in the United States and Mexico from the 19th century onward are mainly, if not all, descendants of the above mentioned German families.
Today, one can also find the name Sartorius in South Africa, Canada, Ireland and Italy. It likely comes from Germany or the Netherlands in the first case, from Germany through the United States or from England in the second one and from England in the third one. The origin of the Italian Sartorius' remains unknown .
I was even surprised to discover the existence of Sartorius's in Russia. At the end of 2010, a Mr. Albert Sartorius wrote me in a perfect German that his grandfather, Robert Sartorius, whom he sent me a photo of in a Red Army uniform, was born in 1913 in a colony of Volga Germans called Brunnental. He added that during the German attack in June 1941, Stalin had destroyed these settlements, destroyed their records and banned the settlers, many of whom lost their lives. He directed at me because he had gathered evidence that suggested to him that his great-grandfather, Ferdinand Sartorius, was of French origin .
Figure 7: Robert Sartorius in Red Army uniform
Surprised by that last statement, I dug into the subject. The history of the Volga Germans is known. To develop her states, Empress Catherine II, herself a German princess, let German peasants come, whom she distributed land to, mainly around Saratov, on the Volga. From 1764 to 1767, 30 000 of them, ruined by the Seven Years' War, began the journey from Rhineland, Northern Bavaria, Hesse and Palatinate to Russia. They were 400 000 at the end of the 19th century. The two world wars put them in a difficult position between their homeland and their adopted country. From August 1941 onwards, they were transported in appalling conditions. They had to wait for a decree of the Supreme Soviet of 1964 to be rehabilitated. From the years 1960 onwards, some could return to Germany, then the movement accelerated with the fall of the communist regime. That is probably what happened to the family of my correspondent. So much for the outline .
I have not found any spoors of Sartorius' in Brunnental, founded in 1855 on the left bank of the Volga by settlers from Frank, Kolb, Norka and Walter, villages themselves created in 1767 by Germans from Hesse . In contrast I found some Sartorius' as early as 1798 in the village of Nieder-Monjou, founded in 1767 northeast of Saratov. The 1857 census indicates there a Michael Sartorius, 52 years old, his wife, two sons and two grandchildren, and a Dorothea Sartorius, 27 years old, married to Johann Peter Schmidt. This is probably where to look for the family of my correspondent . Actually, it is likely that all the Russian Sarorius' do not belong to one and the same family. The first Sartorius to settle on the banks of the Volga would have been a certain Friedrich Wilhelm, born about 1734. Weaver of Lutheran confession, he is written down on the lists of German settlers in 1766 and in the 5th census of Nieder-Monjou in 1798 that describes him as originating from Palatinate. As to the ancestor of my correspondant, he would have been Johann Friedrich Sartorius, born on 7th August 1736 in Nentershausen, in Hesse-Cassel, great-great-grand-son of Johann Andreas Sartorius, born on 21st January 1628 in Eschwege and pastor in Nentershausen .
Figure 8: expansion of the name Sartorius outside Europe
The following table gives an estimate of the number of people bearing the name Sartorius in the main countries of the world it can be found .
Number of people
bearing the name Sartorius
1 350 
Figure 10: number of people bearing the name Sartorius throughout the World
And what about France, will you ask? An upper class family in Metz can be found as early as the first half of the 16th century. It was among others represented by Claude Sartorius, dead at the age of 75 in 1588, master in liberal arts and notary, his son Charles, dead in 1625, master alderman, changer and one of the Thirteen, and by his grand-son Charles, lord of Charly and Loyville in part, dead at the age of 77 in 1671, aman of Saint Médard, advisor to the bailyship. As this family is present in Metz at a time that goes back when the town still was a free imperial city, since it was occupied by the French troops only in 1552. Hence it is quite possible that it comes from the German world. Anyhow the name died out in girls as soon as the next century .
The oldest mention of the name Sartorius I found here goes back 1754, under the reign of Louis XV. That year, a banker Sartorius and his associate, a certain Tourton, teamed with Christophe Jean Baur, a citizen of Geneva, to create a bank. Baur was an influential person and a well-known freemason. He had already established a lending bank, rue Saint Sauveur in Paris. The alliance of these three persons gave birth to an important bank known as Tourton and Baur and headquartered place des Victoires .
The name of this first French Sartorius was Henri Charles Chrétien Sartorius. He was born in Eisenach in Saxony, was a protestant and a banker and received in 1770 great chancery letters granting him the French citizenship .
At the beginning of the French Revolution, there was also in Paris a Dutch banker whose name was Sartorius. As a country of Roman Catholic tradition, France of the 18th century still was reluctant to handle money. As a consequence, it let the financial jobs to Protestants. Among those, the citizens of Geneva and the Dutch had a well-established reputation. Therefore, it is not impossible that this banker Sartorius actually was a German wrongly considered by Parisians as a Dutchman. By the way, he may have also been one and the same person as the one alluded to above. Anyhow, this Sartorius was involved in the Favras case.
To put it in a nutshell, this murky case looks as follows. At the end of 1789, the earl of Provence, the future Louis XVIII, conspired. He was likely trying to overthrow his brother Louis XVI and take over the power. To do so he needed money. The cautious earl of Provence used a middleman, Thomas de Mahy, marquis of Favras. Favras spoke to Sartorius and his associate, Mr David, who lent him a significant sum. The information spred out. Favras, a gallant soldier but a naive conspirator, was trapped. Accused of high treason, he was sentenced to death. Some people let him then think that he would be rescued in the last moment as long as he would not talk. This is why Favras, still candid, was hung without having talked. The earl of Provence had not made a single gesture in his favour .
Under the First Empire, a Georg von Sartorius, from Aachen, settled in Paris as an ophtalmologist. He was working there in 1812 . Another German, Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Sartorius, settled as a publisher and bookseller in 1845 in Paris where he died in 1866 . He had begun working in Eisenach and Vienna. He then came to France where he started as an export agent, sending to Germany newspapers with a large circulation such as L'Illustration, L'Image and L'Artiste. Arsène Houssaye used to write articles in this latter paper, which Sartorius was the publisher of from 1848 onward. This Sartorius, who was one of the Germans of Paris best assimilated to the French environment, managed to adapt to the sales techniques used by Parisian booksellers. Sensitive to fashion, he saw the vogue of illustrated books come and specialised in art books. He also embarked on mass publications. At the end of his career, he bet successfully on mass production of cheap books with a large circulation thanks to entirely mechanized techniques. However it did not prevent him from being the friend of men of letters such as Théophile Gautier and Gérard de Nerval .
Yet, there is nothing in common between all these Sartorius' and our own family as you are about to see.
Before turning this page, let us add that there are about 170 people bearing the name Sartorius in France, but that, except more or less fifteen, all belong to our family .
Figure 9 : births of Sartorius's in France between 1891 and 1990 
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 : Jean Carpentier and François Lebrun (under the leadership of), Histoire de l'Europe, foreword by René Rémond, Editions du Seuil, 1990, edition updated in 1992, p. 217.
 : As the humanist and theologian Johann Fischer, alias Piscator of Strasbourg (Strasbourg 1546 - Herborn 1625) and the German theatre director and producer Erwin Piscator (Ulm (Greifenstein) 1893 - Starnberg 1966) (Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, Librairie Larousse, 1960, art. Piscator, and http://de.wikipedia.org/, Art. Edwin Piscator, 10th December 2012).
 : As the famous Flemish mathematician and geograph Gerhard Kremer, alias Gerard Mercator (Rupelmonde 1512 - Duisburg 1594) and the German mathematician Nikolaus Kaufmann, alias Mercator (Wismar, Holstein, about 1620 - Paris 1687) (Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. Mercator).
 : As the German mathematicians Moritz Cantor (Mannheim 1829 - Heidelberg 1920) and Georg Cantor (Saint-Petersburg 1845 - Halle 1918) (Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. Cantor).
 : As the famous German reformator Philipp Schwarzerd, alias Melanchthon (Bretten 1497 - Wittenberg 1560) or this other Alsatian reformator Martin Kuhhorn (Sélestat 1491 - Cambridge 1551), alias Bucer (Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. Bucer and Melanchthon).
 : Let us mention in passing that one of the contemporaneous German Sartorius families originally bore the name Sutorius [from Latin sutor, cobbler, then a latinisation of German Schuhmacher] that was distorted into Sartorius in a marriage certificate in 1841 and continued under the latter form up to now (letter of 17th March 1998 from Mr Karl Heinz Sartorius and http://gw.geneanet.org/edriessen, 14th January 2007).
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, Sartorius Familienforschungen, special reprint of Ekkehard, review of the Deutschen genealogischen Abende [German genealogical evenings], 10th year, n° 3, 4, 5 and 6, 11th year, n° 1, 2 and 6, and 12th year, n° 1, 2 and 3, 1936, p. 3.
To locate places named in the body of the text, cf. the index of locations.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 3.
To spot localations mentioned in the text, see.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 3, and http://www.meschede.de/stadtinfo/geschichte/b035-kreuzbruderschaft.php, 15th November 2005.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 3.
Registered, in German immatrikuliert, means registered at the university (Gerhard Wahrig, Deutsches Wörterbuch mit einem Lexikon der deutschen Sprachlehre, Bertelsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh/Munich, 1986/1992, art. immatrikulieren).
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 3.
 : Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, by Rochus Liliencron, Franz X. von Wegele, Anton Bettelheim and Fritz Gerlich, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1876-1910, vol. 30 (1890), art. Sartorius: Johann S., pp. 387 and 388.
 : Ibid., vol 30, art. Sartorius: Balthasar S., pp. 379 and 380, et Owen Gingerich et Robert S. Westman, The Wittich connection, Conflict and priority in late sixteenth-century cosmology, in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge, vol. 78, part 7, 1988, p. 10.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 3.
 : Henry Bogdan, Histoire de l'Allemagne de la Germanie à nos jours, Perrin, 1999 and 2003, p. 173, and Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. Luther and Réforme.
 : Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 30, art. Sartorius:Erasmus S., p. 382, and art. Sartorius: Paul S., p. 390, Al. Choron and F. Fayolle, Dictionnaire historique des musiciens artistes et amateurs, morts ou vivans, Valade imprimeur-libraire, Paris, novembre 1811, tome II, pp. 270 and 271, and François-Joseph Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, Firmin-Didot, Paris, 1866-1868, tome 7, pp. 402 to 404.
 : Nouveau dictionnaire historique ; ou histoire abrégée de tous les hommes qui se sont fait un nom par des talens, des vertus, des forfaits, des erreurs &c depuis le commencement du monde jusqu'à nos jours et dans laquelle on expose avec impartialité ce que les écrivains les plus judicieux ont pensé sur le caractère, les mœurs & les ouvrages des hommes célèbres dans tous les genres : avec des tables chronologiques pour réduire en corps d'histoire les articles répandus dans ce dictionnaire, par une Société de gens de lettres, cinquième édition, revue, corrigée & augmentée de deux volumes, à Caen chez G. Le Roy, imprimeur du Roi, ancien Hôtel de la Monnoie, Grand rue Notre-Dame, 1783, volume VII, p. 615, art. Sartorius, and volume VIII, p. 17, art. Schneider.
 : Le livre des Sartorius du monde entier, Halbert's Family Heritage, s.l.n.d. [Numa Corporation, Bath, Ohio, United States? 1996?], p. 5.2.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., pp. 24 to 31.
 : Ibid., pp. 17 to 20, and Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 30, art. Sartorius: Johann Georg S., pp. 389 and 390, art. Sartorius: Georg S., pp. 390 to 394, and art. Sartorius: Wolfgang Freiherr S. v. Waltershausen, pp. 394 to 396.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., pp. 8 to 14, and Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 30, art. Sartorius: Christian S., pp. 380 and 381.
This family is still present in Mexico, among others by Willy Sartorius, who descends at the 5th generation from Carl Christian Wilhelm Sartorius, arrived in Mexico in the 1830's, and lives in Monterrey (e-mail of 5th November 2007 from Mr. Willy Sartorius and http://de.wikipedia.org/, art. Christian Sartorius, 10th November 2007).
 : Ibid., pp. 15 to 17.
 : Ibid., pp. 20 to 24, typed genealogy without an indication of its origin (letter of 1st February 1998 from Mrs Marion Leihener and letter of 5th June 1997 from Mr Jürgen Sartorius).
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., pp. 4 to 8.
 : http://www.familysearch.org, 15th November 2005, http://www.ancestry.com, 15th November 2005, http://www.rootsweb.com, 15th November 2005, and e-mail of 3rd February 2001 from Mrs Debbie Varenhorst.
 : Letter of 27th May 1997 from Mr Edwin Sartorius.
 : e-mails of 26th July 1999 and 18th August 1999 from Mr Joseph (Joe) Sartorius.
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., pp. 32 to 34, and typed genealogy without an indication of its origin (letter of 1st February 1998 from Mrs Marion Leihener) that gives many details.
 : Letter of 24th May 1997 from Mrs Beate Sartorius.
 : e-mail Letter of 12th February 1997 from Mrs Helga Dette.
This list does not include a Sartorius family originating from Alsace-Lorraine that emigrated to Pennsylvania, United States, about 1772 and whose members had their name changed to Saddoris (http://www.familysearch.org, 15th November 2004, and http://www.ancestry.com, 15th November 2004). It does not also take into account the family whose name originally was Sutorius (cf. note 6). Lastly, it does not include a German Jewish family whose name is Sartorius, originating from Fürth, 10 kilometres west of Nuremberg. A member of it, Abraham, settled about 1800 in Germersheim, 10 kilometres south-west of Speyer, on the left bank of the Rhine. There were then very few Jews who used a family name. They used to join to their first name the mentions bar or ben [son of] followed by their father's first name. Some used to distinguish themselves by using a nickname. One must also recall that since 1797 France had annexed the whole left bank of the Rhine, which it had made four departments of. The imperial decree of 20th July 1808 imposed on the Jews of the French empire to declare their family name to the municipal government of their residence. They were allowed to keep the name they already bore or choose another one. In the last case, they were not allowed to choose it in the Old Testament or take the name of a city. Most of them took their first name or their nickname as a family name. As for Abraham, he chose the name Sartorius that was that of Jakob Sartorius, the royal notary of Germersheim, who belonged to the family of the Sartorius' from Darmstadt (cf. note 20). Abraham's descendants emigrated to the United States in the 1845's (letters of 24th August 1999 from Dr Fen Sartorius and 6th September 1999 from Mrs Judith S. Seixas, e-mails of 17th September and 23rd September 1999 from Mr Joel Sartorius, http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/sartorius.html, 15th November 2005, and http://www.msje.org/html/anshe_chesed.html, 26th September 1999 [outdated link, 9th March 2003], as well as Jean Tulard (under the leadership of), Dictionnaire Napoléon, nouvelle édition augmentée, Fayard 1995, art. Juifs, pp. 986 to 990).
 : One will note a rather strong concentration of Sartorius' along the Rhine valley, with a peak in Saarland (Sankt Wandel, 43) and a top around Cologne and Düsseldorf (http://www.verwandt.de/karten/, 8 September 2007).
 : Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. George Ier and Händel ou Haendel, and François Bluche (under the leadership of), Dictionnaire du Grand Siècle, Fayard, 1990, art. Haendel, p. 704.
 : The British admiral is sir George Rose Sartorius (1790-1885) who, at the age of 16, took part in the battle of Trafalgar (many sources, among which Thompson Cooper, F.S.A., Men of the Time, A dictionary of contemporaries containing biographical notices of eminent characters of both sexes, ninth revised and updated, George Routledge and Sons, London, 1875, pp. 883 and 884, Edward A. Thomas, Comprehensive dictionary of biography containing succinct accounts of the most eminent persons in all ages, countries, and professions, Porter & Coates, Philadelphia , p. 470, Charles Morris, The handy dictionary of biography, Henry T. Coates, Philadelphia, 1901, p. 477, Dictionary of national biography, index and epitome, edited by Sydney Lee, second edition, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1906, p. 1158, http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=452, 15th November 2005, and http://en.wikipedia.org/, art. George Sartorius, 6th December 2008).
The British painters were active during the second half of the 18th century. The two most prominent of them were Francis Sartorius and his son John Nost. Francis, alias the Older, born in London in 1734, was a painter of sports and horses. He exhibited sport topics at the Society of Artists and the Royal Academy from 1773 to 1791. The success of his works in England at the end of the 18th century can be explained by the excellent quality of his portraits as well as the interest that has always been born to everything that tackles sport and particularly horses in this country. Among others, he is the author of A black horse with two dogs exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London. He died in London on 5th March 1804. John Nost, born about 1755, was also a painter of horses and sport. He is the author of the series The earl of Darlington fox-hunting with the Raby Pack also exhibited at the Tate Gallery. His works can also be seen at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. He died about 1828. Reproductions of their paintings can be found on the Internet, in particular at the following addresses: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=476&page=1, 15th November 2005, http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=477&page=1, 15th November 2005, http://artcyclopedia.com/artists/sartorius_john_nost.html, 15th November 2005, and http://www.artexpression.com/byartist/Sartorius.htm, 15th November 2005 (numerous sources, mainly sir Walter Gilbey, bart., Animal painters of England from the year 1650, a brief history of their lives and works illustrated with thirty-one specimens of their paintings, and portraits; chiefly from wood engraving by F. Babbage, volume II, Vinton & Co., Londres, 1900, pp. 124 to 147, Algernon Graves, F.S.A., The Royal Academy of Arts, a complete dictionary on contributors and their works from its foundation in 1796 to 1904, tome VII, Henry Graves & Co., Ltd., Londres, et George Bell and Sons, Londres, pp. 27 à 29, et Dictionary of national biography, index and epitome, p. 1158).
 : Cf. Willy Vandevoir, avocat à la Cour d'appel de Liège, L'affaire Sartorius, un procès criminel au XVIIIème siècle, Jean Vromans imprimeur, Bruxelles, 1941, professeur Marcel Florkin, de l'Université de Liège, Episodes de la médecine liégeoise, Josef von Sartori, in Revue médicale de Liège, volume VI, year 1951, pp. 455 to 465, Joseph Philippe, conservateur des musées Curtius et d'Ansembourg, Une famille de médecins du pays de Liège : les Sartorius in Revue médicale de Liège, volume VII, n° 24, 15th December 1952, pp. 803 to 815, Joseph Philippe, conservateur des Musées d'Archéologie et des Arts décoratifs de Liège, Une remarquable famille de médecins du pays de Liège : les Sartorius, in Si Liège m'était conté..., 10th year, n° 34, spring 1970, pp. 15 to 23, and Jacques Janssens, L'abbé Sartorius était-il coupable ? in Le Miroir de l'Histoire, n° 295, November 1976, pp. 71 to 78.
Contrary to the assertion of some members of our family, it is doubtful that we are closely related to the Sartorius' from Visé. These are followed there since from the mid 17th century, when our ancestors are followed in Germany at the same time (cf. chapter 2).
 : Diccionario universal de historia y geografia [...] Obra dada a luz en España por une sociedad de literaros distinguidos y refundeda y augmentada considerablemente para su publicacion en Mexico con noticias historicas, geograficas, estadisticas y biograficas sobre las Americas en general y specialmente sobre la Republica mexicana por los sers. D. Lucas Alamas, D. Jose Maria Andrade, D. Jose Maria Baseca [...], tome VI, Imp. de F. Escalante y Co et Libreria de Andrade, Mexico, 1855, pp. 851 et 852, L'Express dated 7th to 13th February 1981, p. 93, Le Monde dated 18th September 1981, 11th June 1982, 1st November 1982, 9th November 1982 and 30th December 1983, Paris Match dated 5th March 1992, pp. 92 to 96, http://www.geocities.com/Paris/metro/7120/list.html, 25th November 2000 [outdated link 12th March 2003], and http://www.ciudadfutura.com/cotilleo/isabels.htm, 5th April 1999 [outdated link 12th March 2003].
The origins of this family remain controversial. According to http://www.xtec.es/~jrovira6/bio/sartoriu.htm, 15th November 2005, Luis Jose Sartorius would be born in Sevilla in a humble family of Polish origin. This origin seems dubious, even if in neighbouring Lithuania the ending ius is quite common in family names. This Polish origin is also mentioned in a brief article of Point de Vue-Images du Monde. http://es.wikipedia.org/, art. Luis Jose Sartorius, also give this Polish origin.
The German origin of this family is reported by LeRoy Ferguson (e-mail of 4th February 2001). According to him, who quotes the words of a Spanish genealogist, Charles V would have called to Spain many Germans who would have settled in the province of Jaen. Among them were Schneiders who, under the influence of old Spanish sartorio, changed their name to Sartorius.
According to Alexandro Sartorius Darder (message of 28th September 2001 in http://genforum.genealogy.com/sartorius/messages/9.html [outdated link 12th March 2003] and Juan Jacobo Sartorius (e-mail of 24th February 2003), the Spanish Sartorius' would be the descendants of Andreas Wilhelm Schneider or Sartorius who emigrated from Germany to Cadix in 1799, for reasons that remain unclear. He came from Marburg. He was a descendant of the Sartorius' from Darmstadt and a relative of the Sartorius who emigrated to Mexico.
Lastly, according to another version, actually the most likley, given by the Diccionario ..., p. 851, Jose Luis Sartorius Tapia would be the son of the baron of Rosseneg, a general in the service of the emperor od Austria passed in Spain because of the events that occured in Germany at the end of the 18th century and who would have married there with doña Joaquina de Tapia Sanchez, from the distinguished family of the marchesses of Castellon.
 : These indications stem from the consultation of the biographic dictionaries already quoted as well as contemporaneous German, American and Mexican telephone directories.
I have identified about ten German Sartorius' who emigrated to the United States, mainly among the Sartorius families from Kirchhain, Franconia, Franconia-Thuringia and Homberg (cf. notes 19, 21, 23 and 24 and http://www.familysearch.org/, 15th November 2005). Among the American Sartorius' whose ascent is not established, several though are of German ascent beyond any doubt, like this August Sartorius, who married at the Madison Street German Presbyterian Church of New York on 12th December 1885 a Miss Helene Endlich, a typically German name (http://www.familysearch.org/, 15th November 2004), or this Christian Gerdes Sartorius, who came to the United States at the age of 19 in 1888 and died in 1926 in Stuttgart, Arkansas, a city whose name itself shows the importance of German colonisation in certain parts of the United States (https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/asalzman/www/Wilken_Bokker/D0001/G0000102.html, 7th November 2004).
Carl Christian Wilhelm Sartorius, from the Sartorius family from Darmstadt (cf. note 20), professor in Wetzlar, compromised himself in the popular movements of 1819 in Germany. Put by this fact under surveillance, he left and operated mines in Mirador (state of Veracruz) in Mexico and founded a line there (Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. 30 (1890), pp. 380 and 381, Heinrich Lemke, Ein Besuch der direkten deutschen Ansiedlung in Mexiko, in Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, n° 8, 1901, pp. 78 and 79, and http://de.wikipedia.org/, art. Christian Sartorius, 30th January 2008).
The Canadian Sartorius' could well descend from Hessian soldiers serving the king of England. In this vein, in an e-mail of 3rd September 2011, Betty Dobson, from Halifax (Nova Scotia), refers to the case of his ancestor Valentin Sartorius, who served in the 60th Regiment Eoyal Americans, which his brother Ludovic was a drummer, who arrived at the United States in 1777 and was msutered out in Halifax on 17h July 1784. He then married the daughter of a sergeant of the 60th and strained in the county of Guysborough.
 : e-mail from Mr Albert Sartorius, 20th December 2010.
 : http://de.wikipedia.org/, art. Geschichte der Russendeutschen, 26th February 2011, et art. Wolgadeutsche, 26th February 2011, and http://wolgadeutsche.net/, 26th February 2011.
 : http://www.bouldernet.com/frank/, 3rd March 2011, http://www.brunnental.us/brunnental/index.html, 3rd March 2011, http://erikas.cc/walter/, 3rd March 2011, and http://www.volgagermans.net/norka//a>, 3rd March 2011.
 : http://volga.niedermonjou.org:8000/index.html, 27th February 2011.
 : e-mails from Mr. Albert Sartorius, 23rd September 2011, 16th October 2012 and 23rd October 2012.
 : Le livre des Sartorius du monde entier. For Belgium, L'annuaire des familles, généalogies Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Société des Annuaires, 1995, p. 1245. For Mexico, telephone directory of the city of Mexico, 1979.
 : Number given by Le livre des Sartorius du monde entier. http://www.verwandt.de/karten/, 8th septembre 2007, indicates that there are 540 entries undert the name Sartorius in the German telephone directories, what corresponds more or less to 1 440 personnes, scattered over 149 circles and towns.
 : Abbé J. F. Poirier, Metz, documents généalogiques, armée, noblesse, magistrature, haute bourgeoisie, d'après les registres des paroisses, 1561-1792, Lamulle et Poisson, libraires-éditeurs, Paris, 1899, pp. 19, 85, 143, 176, 239; 240, 376, 484, 577, and 578.
Since the end of the 12th century, Metz had been governed by a Supreme Council made of a master alderman and twelwe jurymen, whence their name of Thirteen. The Thirteen were the justice corps of the city. Created at the same time, the amans were notaries who kept trace in logbooks of the contracts concluded by a handshake, whence their name à mains [at hands], aman. There was an aman per parish of the city of Metz, among which Saint Médard. Originally elective, the office of aman became venal from 1422 onwards (document dodger0.chez-alice.fr/Dodger/METZ.doc on the Internet, 9th April 2010).
 : Giacomo Casanova, Mémoires, text presented and annotated by Robert Abirached, La Pléiade, Gallimard, 1959, p. 142, note 1, and Le Livre de Poche, 1967 publishing, volume V, p. 173, note 4.
The Tourtons were Protestants originating from Lyon who sheltered in Geneva at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Claude Tourton, a merchant confectioner, sent his son Jean-Claude in apprenticeship in Frankfurt when he only was 14. The latter settled in Paris as early as 1685, possibly even before. In 1703, he joined his forces with his cousin Louis Guiguer. As soon as 1707, the house of Tourton and Guiguer was one of the four or five major banks of Paris, even if it counted less than ten clerks. It had a branch in London. At the time of the financial crisis of 1709, his brother Jean-André, a banker in Lyon and his associate in London, got bankrupt. It does not seem that these events affected the Paris branch. As regards their brother Jean Tourton, he had been sent as early as 1663 in apprenticeship in Amsterdam at a Mr d'Estevenant's, a huguenot merchant. Back in Geneva in 1669, he carried on his training at his uncle Léonard Guiguer's. He went back to Holland where he acquired Amsterdam's citizenship in 1675. In 1678 he married Elisabeth Scholten, born in this city. His business became important. For example he owned, jointly with the François Fatio and fils Company of Geneva, plantations in Surinam. He developped actively trade with his brother Jean-Claude, based in Paris, particularly during the Spanish Succession war. In 1715, Jean-Claude Tourton and Louis Guiguer transferred their bank to their first clerk and nephew Isaac Thellusson, while remaining sleeping partners. In 1748, Tourton and Baur created with Paris de Montmartel the Société pour le commerce de la traite des nègres à la côte d'Angola et de là aux îles de Saint-Domingue. The house of Tourton survived the French revolution and was still active during the First Empire. The trade name then was Tourton and Ravel (Herbert Lüthy, La Banque protestante en France de la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes à la Révolution, volume II, De la banque aux finances, Paris 1961, p. 169, Jean Tulard, Dictionnaire Napoléon, art. bourgeoisie, pp. 279 to 288, and crises économiques, pp. 552 to 560, http://www.louverture.ch/material/SKLAVEREI/angola.html, 15th November 2005, and http://gw.geneanet.org/peyrot, 15th November 2005.
Rue Saint Sauveur corresponded to the current portion of rue de Bellechasse comprised between rue de Grenelle and rue de Varenne (Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnare historique des rues de Paris, 7th edition, Les Editions de Minuit, 1963, art. Bellechasse (rue de), volume 1, p. 171.
 : Herbert Lüthy, op. cit., p. 166, and Archives de Paris, DC6 17, f° 212 r°.
 : Jean Tulard, Dictionnaire Napoléon, art. Louis XVIII, pp. 1087 to 1090, Michel Vovelle, La chute de la monarchie 1787-1792, volume I of the Nouvelle histoire de la France contemporaine, Editions du Seuil, 1972, p. 146, Grand Larousse encyclopédique en dix volumes, art. Favras and Louis XVIII, and Paul and Pierrette Girault de Coursac, Provence and Artois, les deux frères de Louis XVI, François-Xavier de Guibert éditeur. The latter authors indicate Schaumel, instead of David, as the associate of Sartorius. Also see http://www.megapsy.com/Revolution/Rev_017.htm, 15th Novembre 2005, and http://britannica.ruv.net/F/FA/FAVRAS_THOMAS_DE_MAHY_MARQUIS_DE.htm, 15th Novembrr 2005).
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 5. He might be the same person as Georges de Sartorius, a son of Gérard Joseph Sartorius, from Visé, born in Gratz (Austria) in 1787, and received as a medicine doctor by the faculty of Paris on 11th August 1812 (Joseph Philippe, already quoted article in Revue médicale de Liège, volume VII, n° 24, 15th December 1952, pp. 803 to 815).
 : Retired pastor Otto Sartorius, op. cit., p. 5.
Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Sartorius belonged to the Sartorius family of Franconia-Thuringia followed since the beginning of the 17th century (cf. note 24). He was born in Eisenach about 1818 and died in his house, 27 rue de Seine, Paris, 6th arrondissement, on 8th May 1866. He had married about 1859 Joséphine Charlotte Goetschy, born in Paris on 5th July 1823, baptized in the church of la Madeleine on 7th July 1823, dead in Paris, 6th arrondissement, on 13th June 1873. Witenesses to Ferdinand Sartorius' death were his brothers-in-law Jean Antoine Lévesque, councillor at the Imperial court of Paris, knight of the Légion d'honneur, 60 years old, living rue Blanche, n° 69, and Joseph Meykiechel, music composer, 41 years old, living rue Olivier, n° 4. Witnesses to his wife's death were Joseph Meykiechel, artist musician, 48 years old, living rue Richer, n° 43, and Ludovic Sclafer, without occupation, 50 years old, living rue de Seine, n° 27. Various documents dated November and December 1866 indicate that Ferdinand Sartorius had beens authorized to work during several years together with Mr Jean Pierre Roret, patented bookseller from 23rd July 1828. On 24th December 1866, Joséphine Charlotte Goetschy got a bookseller patent in Paris, in replacement of Mr Roret, who had resigned, and was replaced on 31st October 1875 by Mr Ludovic Sclafer. A report to His Excellency Mr Minister of Interior sent on 21st December 1866 by the Police prefect in charge of the General Directorate for Public Security, explains the context of how this patent was delivered: The resignation of the holder, Mr Roret, was actually given in favor of the petitioner's husband. But, as a foreigner, the latter could enjoy this transfer only after having been naturalized French. As the ten years of residency were about to be accomplished and this favor would be granted to him, he died. It then seems fair to transfer the resignation that had been made in his favor on his widow's head, who nevertheless offers as regards ability and morality all required guarantees. A certificate of ability was delivered to her: We undersigned Hachette, patented bookseller and editor, 77, boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, Dentu, patented bookseller and editor, galerie d'Orléans, Palais Royal in Paris, Michel Lévy bros, patented booksellers and editors, 2 bis, rue Vivienne in Paris, Frédéric Henry, patented bookseller and editor, 12, galerie d'Orléans, Palais Royal in Paris, certify that Mrs widow Sartorius, born Goetschy, living 27, rue de Seine, in Paris, enjoys all required abilities to exert bookselling and editing and take over the business of his husband, Mr Ferdinand Sartorius, bookseller and editor, deceased in Paris on 8th May 1866 (Archives nationales, F/18/1770, patents of printers-booksellers in Paris, file of Mrs Goetschy Joséphine Charlotte, widow Sartorius). Ferdinand Sartorius and Joséphine Charlotte Goetschy among others published the works of their brother-in-law and brother Joseph Goetschy, printer, then music teacher and writer (http://www.lizeray.com/arbregen/index.htm#TOC, 15th November 2005), and http://fr.wikipedia.org, art. Angelo de Sorr [pseudonym of Ludovic Sclafer] and Nicolas Roret, 5th July 2008.
 : Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, Mémoires de la vie littéraire, texte intégral établi et annoté par Robert Ricatte, professeur à l'Université de Paris VII, volume II, 1866-1886, Robert Laffont, 1989, p. 499, note 1, Helga Jeanblanc, Des Allemands dans l'industrie et le commerce du livre à Paris (1811-1870), CNRS Editions, pp. 73 to 77, 208, 209, 253 and 254, and Deux lettres inédites de Gérard de Nerval à Ferdinand Sartorius, Thierry Bouchard, Losne, 1986.
Arsène Houssaye is the pseudonym of Arsène Housset (1815-1896), a French poet, novelist and essayist. Thanks to his publishing at the age of 20 of two sentimental novels he was introduced by Théophile Gautier to Nerval, Banville, Champfleury and Murger. From 1843 to 1849, Houssaye managed L'Artiste, a newspaper founded in 1831 that was one of the most important reviews about art and litterature under the so-called July Monarchy (1830-1848). From 1849 to 1856, he was the administrator of the Comédie française. Appointed as an inspector of the province museums in 1857, he joined L'Artiste again in 1860. This same year, he took over the management of the Revue du XIXe siècle (Jean Tulard (under the leadership of), Dictionnaire du Second Empire, Fayard, 1995, art. Houssaye (Arsène), p. 627).
 : Le livre des Sartorius du monde entier. The French Sartorius' who do not belong to our family can mainly be found in the department of Moselle. They are likely of German ascent as the 3617 GENLOR server clearly indicates for several bearers of the name in Moselle during the 18th and 19th centuries.
 : The 1891-1915 map clearly shows the existence besides our family (8 births in the department of Nord) of the Sartorius family of Moselle (3 births) and one or more in Alsace (respectively 4 and 5 births in Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin). The two births in Pas-de-Calais and Ille-et-Vilaine are due to members of our family shletered in these departments at the beginning of First World War.
The 1916-1940 map shows the scaterring of these different lines. If our family largely stays in Nord, it also shows occasionnal births in Ardennes (Guy Sartorius at his maternal grands-parents' in July 1927) or in Brittany, here again because of both First and Second World Wars (out of which Jacques Sartorius, born in Paramé in 1918 and Philippe Sartorius in Saint-Brieuc in 1940). The isolated births in Eure, Tarn and Yvelines remain uexplained.
Between 1941 and 1965, the trend goes on. It can still be noticed that a significant number of births occur in the craddles of the different Sartorius families (Bas-Rhin, Moselle and Nord). As to our family, it continues to spread geographically (Haute-Marne, Isère, Oise, Vaucluse and Yvelines). The three births in Bouches-du-Rhône, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-d'Oise remain unexplained.
Finally, from 1966 to 1990, it is more and more difficult to follow the movements. Nord stays ahead far and away, with more than 40% of all births. Those occuring in Isère, Pas-de-Calais, Savoie, Somme, Vaucluse and Yvelines belong to our family, those of Loiret likely also. The birth in Indre-et-Loire remains unexplained. As to the families of Moselle and Bas-Rhin, they keep growing slowly (maps drawn from http://www.geopatronyme.com, 14th December 2008, and http://www.geneanet.org/, 14th December 2008).
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