This long-established surname is of early medieval German origin, and is an occupational name for a maker or repairer of shoes. The derivation is from the German "schuh", ultimately from the Old High German "scuoh", shoe, and variant forms of the name include: Schau(mann), Schaumaker (Westphalia), Schomaker, and Shuchmacher. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. In 1505, the birth of Achim Schomaker was recorded in Petschow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and on September 18th 1564, Agnes Schumacher and Velten Gernshart were married at Landau in Pfalz Stadt, Bayern. The christening of Andreas, son of Michel and Margreth Schumacher, took place in Gemmrigheim, Neckarkreis, Wuertt, on February 20th 1567. A Coat of Arms granted to the Schumacher family is recorded heraldically in Rietstap's "Armorial General", and depicts a shield divided quarterly red and blue, a gold mountain with six peaks in the first and fourth red quarters, and a silver swan, beaked and membered red in the second and third blue quarters. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Andreas Schomaker of Greifswald, which was dated 1377, in "Die Greifswalder Familiennamen des 13/14 Jahrh", by Dr. H. Nuske, during the reign of Charles 1V of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor, 1347 - 1378. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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