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There are lots of different spellings for LUCK - LÜCK, LUECK, LUCKE, etc. The Dictionary of German Surnames gives the origin of LÜCK as "swampy ground". Thus the city of Luckenwalde was named for a swampy forest, and a man named LÜCK would have been someone who lived near swampy ground. The dictionary doesn't mention LUCK or LUCKE. I don't know if that's because they were some of the many German surnames that weren't covered or if they were considered to have the same root. I know that in some families they have been interchangeable or have changed over time, but as far as I have been able to find in my branch we have only had LUCK's. That doesn't mean I don't want to hear about any others. I've collected a few GEDCOM's and a lot of messages from LUCK's of all spellings. I'd love to make a connection for somebody else. It's almost as much fun as finding one for myself ;-). To complicate matters, there are English LUCK's. I don't know much about their origins. I've read too many conflicting stories, and I'll leave searching out the truth to them. In the US, most of the LUCK's in the Southeast and far West seem to be of English origin, and most of the LUCK's in the Northeast and the midwest, from Texas to Minnesota and Wisconsin, are from Germany.
My branch of the LUCK family has been traced back to the 1700's in the village of Bünnewitz, in Kreis Cammin, Pommern. This village was a suburb of Cammin City (below). In those days they were carpenters and ship builders. My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, Michael LUCK, was a 'Jachtenschiffer' there. Although many family members had left before, it wasn't until the late 1800's that my Great-Grandfather, Julius Hermann Alexander LUCK, left Pomerania, eventually arriving in Hamburg, where he was a Hochschule Rektor. By 1905, he and most of his children had immigrated to the United States. Eventually, I came along.
"Once upon a time, there were five brothers who lived together in a castle. The castle stood on a hill overlooking a town that was named after the brothers' family. The family's name came from the tribe of which they had been the chieftains for generations. One by one, the eldest brother, who ruled the castle, bade farewell to each of his brothers as they left to make their own way in the world. They did well, too, becoming nobles and notables in their new lands. Finally only the eldest brother and his family were left alone in the castle. They lived happily until one day their prince died, and enemies invaded the land. The eldest brother and his family were forced to flee to the west, losing everything. Eventually, they reached the shore of the Baltic Sea in Pomerania and settled there; in quieter, but much reduced circumstances. We are descended from that family."
This is the story my Great-Grandfather told his sons on the ship coming to America, and it's the story that was passed on to me. 'A nice tale' I always thought, but I never paid much attention to it until I started researching my genealogy. Three times, now, I've run into LUCK's and even a von LUCK who have very similar family legends. So, does the story have any basis in fact? Here's what I've been able to find out:
1. There is a city named Lutsk in the Ukraine, and it's name used to
be Luck.
2. The city of Luck was founded by the Luchenya tribe of Slavs in the
tenth or eleventh century.
3. The rulers of Luck were liegemen of and intermarried with the rulers
of Kiev, and disappeared from the area when the Lithuanians invaded following
the fall of Kiev. Some of the ruins of their castle and fortifications
are still standing, although rebuilt in the 1400's (below).
4. The various von LUCK families originated in Silesia and West Prussia,
at about the same time as the fall of Lutsk.
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