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Sharpnack and Sharpneck surnames in the United States originated from around the time of Duke Adolph II of Jülich and Berg (1408-1437), whose family ruled at Elberfeld Castle, Jülich, w. Berg Duchy, Ruhr River Basin, Rhineland Region, Saxony. The ruling family granted some lands near the towns of Elberfeld and Barmen (straddling the Wupper River) to the head of the Scharpenacken family.
This old Scharpenacken estate would be located in what is now the city of Wuppertal (having been formed from the merger of Elberfeld, Barmen, and other towns), Bergisch Land, North Rhine-Westphalia State, Germany, some miles east of Düsseldorf. A replica historical map of the period shows the Scharpenacken farm estate was situated on the southern side of the river, near the crest of the hill. Although the city of Wuppertal was heavily bombed by the Allies in 1943, and time has otherwise removed traces of the old home, the Scharpenacken estate of old Wuppertal still exists in name, as Scharpenacken Park, in the same general area.
The earliest known mention of the Scharpenacken family on this estate is found in the Lutheran Parish tax record of January 9, 1502. This original paper document was found at the Lüttringhausen parish (which is located just south of the Scharpenacken estate), in southern Wuppertal. The Wuppertal Archives contains the text of the 1502 document, in a copy of the Monthly Publication of the Berg History Club, Elberfeld, November 1912, 19th Publication, No. 11, pp 182-184.
Generations after the formation of the estate, a descendant named Johannes Peter Scharpnacken and family immigrated on the ship Lydia, arriving September 27, 1740 and settling at Germantown Township, outside Philadelphia. Johannes signed his name in Low German as "Sharpnagh." From this single family stock are then descended all the American family of this name, and its variants.
The newly revived name of the historical Sharpnack Street in Germantown is a relic of the 18th Century origins of the family in America. -- [notes by Steven Russell Mix, Sep. 2011]