A Leinbach/Lineback/Linebaugh Genealogy
 
   
Margaret, Elisabeth, Ernest, Myra, Gilbert and Charles Lineback, ca. 1947
 
  Etymology
 
       Leimbach / Leinbach / Lineback / Linebaugh

The surname of the first known ancestor is Leimbach. It is a compound word formed from two roots, leim and bach. In the German language, bach is a brook. And, leim means glue. Fortunately, it's usage in the 1600's and 1700's probably meant clay, the same as the modern German word lehm. (No, the stuff was not lime; kalk is the German word for that!) So, the Leimbach surname might be translated into English as something like Claybrook

People with the name Leimbach can be found in both Europe and America to this very day. The train station, Bahnhof Leimbach, in Zurich, Switzerland apparently is even named for one. But for some unknown reason, the American immigrant, Johannes (1674-1747), changed the spelling to Leinbach. And, with a few exceptions, the spelling has stuck.

President Andrew Jackson, a notorious speller, was quoted as saying, "It's a damned poor mind that can spell a word only one way." He might well have had the Leinbach name in mind when he made that proclamation. Some Leinbachs, wanting to Anglicize their surname for their own reasons, changed the spelling to Lineback and Linebaugh. Over the years, numerous English-speaking immigration officials, census-takers and courthouse clerks have produced other variations. Indeed, a quick check of the telephone book or the Social Security records will yield not only the more conventional Leimbach, Leinbach, Lineback, and Linebaugh, but also Linebach, Leinback, Leinbaugh, and Leimback. Regardless of the spelling, they are all joined together in some way by -- do we dare say it? -- a little leim!
 

The German-American Collection