Posted on Facebook on 31 January 2016.

The name Weißenborn refers to a source of good water. Where-ever such a source occurs in Thüringen and areas around it, it may have been given the name Weißenborn.

This afternoon I was probing the internet with yet another search string ("johann weissenborn trauung", for those who want to verify my story), and I came across the question by Thomas Gebhardt in Leipzig (see attached screen shot) about Michael Wolf(f)ermann, miller in Weißenborn near Bröckau, born in about 1603.

I checked up on this village, and indeed there is mention of an "Ortsteil" Weißenborn in Bröckau on Wikipedia. Furthermore, as seen in the attached snapshot from Googlemaps, there is a street running around two small lakes north-east of Bröckau. So: in 1603 there was a village there, with a miller. Apparently it is there no longer. But for us Weis(s)enborns it is one more indication just how common our family name once was.