From Where Does The Surname Originate? ^{meaning and history}

User-submitted Reference

Version 1

A pretty little village is said to have been flourishing in former times on Saus Alphigh above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Once after a horrendous thunderstorm the waters of the Saus Creek rose to an unprecedented level and swept away all the dwelling houses, killing every inhabitant. Only one single child miraculously survived. Compassionate people from the valley raised him, and since his name was unknown he was given the name of his origin: Sauser.(Quoted after Wyss 'A Journey into the Bernese Oberland')

Version 2

The Saus Village had been completely wiped out by the Black Death in one of those epidemics which plagued the valleys or the area. There was a deadly silence when the coroners inspected the deserted village. But suddenly, from a little house at the end of one of the lanes, they hear a pitiful whimper. They enter and see a little child lying in a cradle. On his blanket there is a loaf of bread cut into slices, so that the child could just reach it with his tiny hands. This foresight of the dying parents had saved the boy from certain starvation. Nobody knew the child's name, therefore he was named Sauser after his native village, and up to this day many people bearing that name can be found in the Lauterbrunnen Valley.(Quoted after Reverend Joss, Lauterbrunnen)

Version 3; Verbal story told to the individual writing the letter by a living Swiss Sauser in 1989.

According to a Sauser family in Switzerland, the name Sauser came from the Saus Valley below Saus Alp, SW of Interlaken, Switzerland. The valley is within view of the three high peaks of Jungfrau, the Munch and the Eiger. Back around 1348, when the Black Death Plague swept the area, all the people of the Saus Valley died of the dread disease except for one little boy baby, He survived on the bread left beside him by his dying mother. He was rescued by the people of Sigrisvil – a village up in the mountains and north of Lake Thun. Because the little survivor was from the Saus Valley, he was called Sauser. Thus the origin of the Sauser family. Two other versions of the family legend follow this sketch. (Quoted: From an from undated letter to an unknown Sauser in Minnesota, USA that also refers to the person visiting the valley and meeting Martin Sauser of Bern who took him there on a return trip from the Soviet Union.)

Both version 1 and version 2 can be found in Das Berner Oberland in Sage und Geschichte. (Prospekt.) [With coloured plates andillustrations.]. Hermann Hartmann of Interlaken, 1909, 77 pages. which is in German but can be found in some US libraries and portions of it in Google Books.

Saus Alp is located (46°36'14.2″N 7°52'19.1″E) with the river 'Sousbach' or Sous Creek flowing down it and into the Lockbruch, which merges with the river before terminating in Lake Brienzersee. The origin of the stream is just below Chilchfluepass aka Sausgrat Pass and the Rote Hard / Schwarzgrat ridge line. Information on the lower valley where people farm today is on this site as well. The traverse of the upper valley is found in several Swiss Alpine hiking guides.