While attending seminary, your host met a visiting professor from Germany. When he learned my name was Stroud, he inquired how I spelled it. When I informed him that it was "Stroud," he responded "interesting... in Germany it was originally spelled 'Straud.'"

Actually, I found his remark quite surprising, since I had always assumed my Stroud ancestors had come from England, and that we had retained the original spelling. I eventually forgot about his comment for more than twenty years until a fellow Stroud genealogist came across the amazing comment in the 1900 census that my great-grandfather Chauncey indicated his mother was from Scotland, and his father was from Germany. Unfortunately, his brother Louis did not corroborate this information, since he left the section about the birthplace of his parents blank.

Until I learn more about my more distant ancestors, I have become curious about the less common "Straud" surname. The maps below have been reproduced from the Hamrick site, and show the two census periods in their database when there were measurable numbers of Strauds in the United States.

Frequency of the Spread of the Straud Surname by Year