Think You Know Your Name?

[Dennis1209]

Here's a brain teaser for you I recently was thinking about. This is for people like me that have too much time on their hands and are getting old and pondering life. I was cutting my three acres of grass today and pondering the answers. I did a genealogy web site on my family tree about eight years ago and published it, so I can trace my surname and family back at least 250 years to England and Scotland and the arrival of my ancestors in America many generations ago.

 

Most of us have two or three names we are given. A first name, a middle name and a last surname. With the exception of marriage where the bride may accept the husbands surname and legal name changes when desired, most of us keep our names our parents gave us at birth. I did change mine from “Two Dogs Humping” but that's another story.

 

Most people have surnames that date back generation upon generation with no records of the beginning of their surname.

 

Here's my questions... How many of you know when and / or where your surname came into existence and from what, abbreviated from a longer name? Who originally gave themselves that surname and why? How did they select it and is there any meaning to it?

[UncleJak]

I've extensively researched mine and have a wonderful history!  I don't want to share my real name online, but i encourage everyone to dig a bit and see what you can find!  Ancestry.com is a great place to start and old family bibles used to have family tree sections too!

 

I did change mine from “Two Dogs Humping” but that's another story.

This reminds me of when I was younger, my grandfather was giving all the grandkids their "spirit names".  I thought i was too big for that silliness. Pretty soon all my cousins were using their names and I felt left out.  I returned to my grandfather and requested that I too could have one. He agreed and dubbed me "Chief S***head". I did eventually get a real one.....

Edited August 9, 2013 by UncleJak

[vontar]

I was able to trace my family back to 1760. 

[Oh Shoot]

My middle name is misspelled, according to one close relative who gave me lowdown on a bunch of stuff on my father's side after he died, though Mom denies it.

 

Harkens back to Dad's folks, meant to give Dad middle name of "Julius".  Somehow got his on birth certificate as Junious.

 

Since Dad named me a Jr, my middle name is Junious, too.

 

Last name is pretty plain as to original origin, one of the main Highland Scottish clans, spelling variations all happened one they hit the New World and the horse thieves, pickpockets, and whiskey makers tired to differentiate themselves from one another. :)

 

I met head of clan on a 1978 trip around England/Scotland, wrangled an invite over to her digs, built in 1746 not far from the original castle which also still stands there in ruins dating from the 1400's just outside Oban (which you can cross reference to find out my last name. But it won't reveal the actual spelling). :)

 

- OS

Edited August 10, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[Murgatroy]

There are several variations of my last name, and I am pretty sure I know where if not the when of it getting started.

 

My father's family was heavy into genealogy. Most Mormons are. I haven't seen the book in a while, but I am pretty sure they had our name traced back a handful of hundred of years, even had a nifty coat of arms or some crap in there.

 

 

 

 

 

As for middle names, I got cheated on mine too. The family initials for a firstborn male go back for generations on my paternal side, so I got the same as my father, and his father before him, and his father before him, etc... Seems they ran out of names at some point, cause all I got for a middle name was B.

 

That has caused me a lot of grief. "B, just B, not an initial, no period, just the letter B. That is my middle name. No, it isn't short for Bob, yes, I go by Bob, but that is cause my name is Robert. No, the B is just a B, not short for Bob. No, I am not lying to you..." 

[gun sane]

My great grandfather was a full-blooded Choctaw.  Sometime in the late 1800s he killed a man in Mississippi.  I don't know if it was murder or self-defense, but an Indian's word wasn't worth much to the authorities then, so he left the tribe and ran to Texas, where he met and married my white great grandmother.  They settled in the Oklahoma Territory near Ada.  No one knows where he got our surname.  It may have been the name of a man he knew or maybe read it on a sign.  At any rate, when the feds were composing the Dawes Roll lists of tribal members, he declined to enroll, probably thinking they'd tie him to the killing back in Mississippi.  So, I'm 1/8th Choctaw, but can't prove it.

[tennessee01tacoma]

I don't know a lot about my last name, but middle is the same as my dads and he got his middle name from a great uncle or someone like that, my middle name is Duel, I wish I knew how far that goes back but sadly I don't

[Randall53]

I tried this several years ago, but found it's just not that easy for some people and I was one of the hard ones to find info on.  I used online genealogy sites as best I could and one you had to pay for. I tried census records, military, birth etc.......and I found out that in my case, it was going to take a LOT of leg work and travel involved, especially on my mothers side. Not exactly a pastime affair.  If you can find yours from the comfort of your living room, count yourself lucky.  It didn't work in my situation and was much harder and expensive than I figured it was going to be.

[Guest Razz]

We traced our last name back to Switzerland. There are several different spellings of the name, in the US even for such a small clan. My grandfather started speaking the name phonetically at the turn of the century and my dad continued this trend. The rest of the family does not approve and I find it funny. I'll provoke an argument if I smell blood in the water.

My father has more information at hand than I. I'm certain he knows the origin and I will pursue some answers during my next visit.

I do remember that, like many, we had relatives fight on both sides of the Civil War. The name I have always been anamored with was Levi. This man fought for the South and shared our surname. I never would have talked my wife into naming our son Levi but sometimes I regret not trying.

By the way, my name in Swiss means "Little mountain flower." I feel so F-ing pretty sometimes.

[TNMTBik3r]

My last name has been traced back to its origins in Scotland, family crest and all. Only way I know is my younger sister did a school project on it and spent a lot of time working with family members.

My moms parents came over from Italy through Ellis Island. Her mother's (my grandmother, passed away before I was born) last name is the name of a town in Italy. I don't know the full history behind that though.

There is some interesting shit out there once you start digging.

[ewingredneck]

My last name is Partin. I got lucky and found a guy who did all the work and traced our family tree back to my 6x grandfather, who was born in the 1760's in Virginia. no one can connect him to the first Partin (Robert)to come to the United States from the British Isles in 1609. He arrived on the ship The Blessinge from London in 1609. It is thought he changed the spelling when he boarded the ship to the US.original spellings could have been Parton, Partington or Parten. There is a town in the UK named Partington and a Parton Bay in town named Whitehaven UK. So its a mystery where my family originated. another interesting twist to the Partin family tree is here. http://www.partinfamily.org/  and here   http://www.partinfamily.org/Ann_Stacy_letter.htm

Edited August 10, 2013 by ewingredneck

[safeandsecure]

According to a college professor I once had (a long while back), who was "fascinated" with the spelling of my surname, I am -- and I quote -- 50% English, 50% Irish, and about a fifth of Scotch.

 

Did some research on my own, and it appears that I am English on my Father's side and Scottish and Irish on my Mother's side.  Father's-side surname spelling changed between the 1850 and 1860 census, so I speculate that my long-ago ancestor was illiterate, and the census-taker spelled it the way it sounded.  Lots of that happened, it seems, as another side of the family has at least three different spellings since the 1820's -- -- at least on gravestones.  Pretty sure that particular side of the family's original surname meant "Son of Nick" --- which I take to mean that they raised the devil at some point in time.

 

I also had an ancestor who enlisted for Confederate service during the Civil War; note that I did not say "fought."  Seems he had to miss at least the majority of battles that his unit fought in due to -- and again, I quote -- suffering from the "diareers." 

 

I hang my head in shame ... ... at least one idiot ancestor, maybe a whole clan who raised hell, and one with a spastic colon.

[ironsniper1]

I wish I could learn about my dads side but I don't know anyone on his side to get the info I need

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[Pain103]

I've been wanting to start researching the family history but I'm not quite sure what resources to use. Any suggestions? I've seen ancestory.com but haven't heard any feedback so I was hesitant to pay for it.

[ewingredneck]

ancestory.com is great. I got a subscription for 3 months to look up my mothers side of the family. it pretty much does the searching for you. I highly suggest using it if you don't know much about your family history.

[kckndrgn]

A while back my mom was big into getting our family history, both sides of the family hers and my dads.

 

She put it in a binder and gave the info to her kids, now I'm looking to expand and update it.

 

She managed to go back to 1815 on my dads side and about 1834 on her side.

 

I've thought about using ancesotry.com to expand it more, but just don't know if I want t pay for it righ tnow.

 

Nice thing is, is that when she was doing this she got old photos from family members - some of them on the metal plates, and had a setup where she could use her 35mm camera and take a photo of the photo.  Turned out pretty good.

 

Thinking of family history, anyone know of a place, either in the Memphis or Knoxville area, to have old, OLD, 8mm film transferred to digital?  We have some old home movies from when my dad was in the navy that is on 8mm and the film is starting to degrad to the point we can't watch it.  Now that my dad has passed, this is one of the few ways we remember him.

 

Thanks

[Guest TankerHC]

I have been conducting Genealogy research for about 38 years now. Initially it was kind of easy because our family is large and has been around the same areas for hundreds of years, roads named after the families, still own the same property last 200+ years, some very prominent people, etc. But one thing no one could ever figure out that has been researched by hundreds of people for the last 50 years :Who was my 3rd great grandfather". We all know he was 100% Native American (Upper Creek), my grandfather who raised me, lived with him and his wife until 1921, he was a Confederate Veteran of the 61st Georgia, we know where his land was because we still own part of it, etc etc. But it seemed he just appeared out of thin air in 1848.

 

Moved to TN and figured it out in 1 week, because I moved to TN.

 

When I moved here a couple of months ago, the temporary house (Before moving into my permanent house) was 500 yards from the Hiwasee River Bridge. Drove down to the boat launch which is the site of the old ferry crossing and there is a sign telling about the miserable conditions of the Indians who waited on that bank to cross. One thing that has always befuddled us was that in Johns Confederate pension application he stated when asked where he lived "I was born in Tattnall County and have lived here all my life". Except that every other relative and ancestor from Tattnall has lots of documentation, not him, he just APPEARED in 1848, although he was born in 1821.

 

So I am reading this sign and it says "The Cherokee, Creeks and Seminoles". Well I was always under the impression that the removal only affected the Cherokee's and that the Seminoles and Creeks were left alone. Nope, they were all moved. So that had me thinking, what if he was in Georgia, got caught up in the removal, then came back?

 

So I went and researched the dates of the removal from the area where our family is from. He would have been moved, about the age of 5. Well if his name was J______ then why isnt he recorded anywhere if he wasnt removed. That led to taking a look at the possibility of other names. When I looked between 1821 and 1830 I saw that there were a lot of native American McDaniels in the area. My 3rd great grandmother (His wife) was a McDaniel.So my next thought was "What if he was actually a McDaniel and not a J_____? So I went to the Cherokee Phoenix, a paper published by the Cherokee during the removal to see if there were any Cherokee, Creeks, or Seminoles named McDaniel moved from the area. Well I found a suspect, Andrew McDaniel, and the reason he was a suspect was because the location, dates matched and my 2nd great grandfather's name is ANDREW Jackson J____. Searching through the Cherokee Phoenix issues I find that Andrew was reported on prominently, he did not want to leave, so he appealed to Return Jonathan Meigs (Of Meigs County Tennesee, Revolutionary war vet and another part of this story) and Meigs sent an agent to Washington with several appeals to allow certain Indians to stay. The agent was refused permission to address the house and even after the Army told the Indians that exceptions would be made, Washington told them that "The Army has its orders, thats that" basically.

 

Instead of being moved to Oklahoma, Andrew McDaniel was given 3 acres and a house, valued at $38 on the Chattanooga Creek, then a year later was moved down to Wolf Creek around Fort Payne, Alabama. So I start looking at Census and other paperwork and find Andrew McDaniel living in Fort Payne, and in his household is John and Mariah McDaniels, John and Mariah are my 3rd great grandparents! But the question was "how did he end up with his name (My name) living in Georgia, same place as the rest of the family, in 1848?

 

Had to go back to the Cherokee Phoenix. Turns out that between 1803 and 1860 in order to be adopted all you had to do was appear before the Georgia State Legislature and ask to be adopted and you got adopted, didn't matter if you were 4 or 40. Indians took such big advantage of this that it got to the point they had to change the Georgia adoption laws in 1860, because it got to the point, thats about all they were doing. So why did he do it? Well, if you were able to get someone to adopt you, as a Native American, you could stay, if not you had to go. Secondly, Indians could not inherit land, but if you were adopted, you could inherit or be given land. So John and Mariah went back to Tattnall County in 1847, when they got there they found that there land had been given to "Boss" L___. The day before John and his brother appeared before the state legislature to be adopted, Boss gave each of them 300 acres (Which turned into 15,000 acres of timber later) and gave his own nephew 3000 acres. They couldnt take it, they were Indians. but they went and got adopted, got their names changed to what my name is now and that was that.

 

For the last 80 years everyone has said the same thing "You will never find out because he is an adopted Indian, there are no records". Well, yes there are. Plenty of them, you just have to know where to look. And plan on spending a lot of hours reading through legislative minutes.

 

The note about Return Johnathan Meigs. When I was in the Army, in 1/1 (Border) Cav, my Commander was LTC Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (He retired as a 4 Star and NATO Commander and went on to teach as a Professor of American History at the University of Texas, I am still in contact with him today). Colonel Meigs is the namesake of his Great Great Uncle, Brigadier General Montgomery C Meigs, the Quartermaster General of the Union Army and he (Union BG Meigs) is the grandson of Return Jonathan Meigs (revolutionary was veteran and partially tasked with the Indian removal)

 

When my 4th great grandfather appealed to not be moved, he did it to Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs. When my 3rd great grandfather was captured at Third Winchester (Opequon Creek) he was sent to Point Lookout POW Camp, when he was released on March 15th, 1865, Brigadier General Montgomery C Meigs signed his paperwork. Then I served under LTC Montgomery C Meigs (later General).

 

What the hell are the odds of that happening?

 

BTW, I met my wife 12 years ago when we were both doing Genealogy research, which led me to get married, which eventually led me to move to TN, which led me to just happen to stop by the Hiwasee river boat ramp, that just happened to have that historic marker posted which led to the solving of an 80 year old mystery.

Edited August 10, 2013 by TankerHC

[peejman]

I've traced Dad's family back 9 generations to the 1740's in England. Dad's got a picture of the family coat of arms, but I don't know any history of that.

I found very little info on Mom's family, only the 2 generations she knew of.

[bigbabysweets]

Traced mine back to the 1500s on my mom's side via ancestry.com but only to my great grandfather on my dads
's side. I've seen pictures of castles my family owned and tapestry bearing the last name of knights jousting. Apparently in the 1700-1800s my family did a lot of sailing and enslaving. I'm related to the Middletons. Including the one that just got married and the my great great grandfather (or greatx3 grandfather) on the Middleton Plantion and Mansion in Charelston S.C.

[ironsniper1]

The thing about my dads ami,y is that as far as I know no one is alive to give me a head start and my dad is a drunk so can't ask him anything, so I'm stuck. But who knows I might find something some day

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[Guest TankerHC]

Since we are on this subject. I usually post this on all the forums I am on, including gun forums, just have not got around to it here yet. I am Board Certified and know the Standards Manual front to back. I am at the National Archives at least once every 2-3 weeks, and sometimes more. I have been doing this for a long time. And I charge nothing.

 

This is what I can do, I have broken down a lot of brick walls.

 

1. Ill search at the National Archives, free of charge, for anything anyone is specifically looking for.

 

2. If Im not in Silver Spring, and in Atlanta, I can also search the Georgia State Archives. If I am in Silver Springs I can also search the Virginia, Maryland and Pa, archives

 

3. I can retrieve Civil War documentation from the original daily (weekly) reports.

 

4. The big fire of 73 burned nearly every record from (Army) 1912 to 1960 and Air Force to 1964, nearly 18 million records. Most people are told those records are gone and you cannot get any information. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can get you a reconstructed record or your WWII grandfather or Korea. Get thier Medals replaced free and get all the records from the day he was inducted to the day he was discharged and everything he did, when he did it and who he did it with. (This requires a fee, $125, but not for me, for the person in St. Louis who does the searches for me), none of that overpriced hourly BS and this guy spends sometimes 10 days hunting down one persons records. If your grandfather was Infantry, and was awarded a CIB, most, even the Vet are surprised they also have a Bronze Star. That also comes with the replacement medals after the record is reconstructed. The replacement Medals you can do yourself, I can show you, thats simple, or I can do it for you if you want.

 

5. I can (At times) get photographs of Civil War ancestors, or at the least, their unit photos from the Civil War.

 

Anyway, a ton of things. Going back 5 or 7 ot 10 generations from a European Ancestor is usually pretty simple, and I rarely use online resources, because most of it is wrong.

 

And as mentioned, I charge nothing. Its just something I like doing.

 

if anyone is interested in some assistance free of charge, message me.

Edited August 11, 2013 by TankerHC

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Kinda sucks with me...

 

My father was a Serb. His mom( my grandmother, fled the former jugoslavia)because she got pregnant with him by some politian.He was already married.No one ever wanted to talk about it.My grand mother barely spoke german as it was and trying find out anything while I was younger was rather dificult.

My father killed himself when I was 2 years old( 45 years ago) Grandma died this year at age 95 and now I still have no clue about any of it.

Its not like it was some sort weird family or we had some really good secrets.lol..My family is just odd I guess...

 

But hey...I am named after the famous Jordanian monument..or a rock...(Petra)

[DWARREN123]

I understand my folks have always been poor. So poor that we never had a coat of arms just a shirt!   :rofl:

[Guest TankerHC]

I understand my folks have always been poor. So poor that we never had a coat of arms just a shirt!   :rofl:

 

Doesnt matter, Coats of Arms arent hereditary anyway. Not unless your Royalty or your family were awarded a Coat of Arms and your entire line worked and still works in that capacity and even then, that takes a lot of special permissions. Plus Heraldry changes, added to and removed from Coats of Arms. So the Coat of Arms from 1437 is not likely to be the same Coat of Arms a Royal family has today, as the escutcheons change based on actions by the Royalty or the Knights.

 

Which brings me to something else. Knights. I have a Knight in my family, Sir Nathan Passmore was knighted in 1457 and is a great grandfather. Thing is, Knights were not always Knighted by Kings and Queens and most of them were not storybook knights. For example, my 9th (or so) great grandfather was a Tax Collector. Dukes could Knight people to go out and collect taxes from their subjects (Locally). These were well known thugs who, if you didnt pay your tax to a lower level royal, would be sent out to beat your a__ and take what you owe. Well known for "legally" terrorizing the populace. The guy (Nathan Passmore) is buried in a churchyard in Wiltshire England.

 

ALL of those Coats of Arms sold based on a name only are bogus. Storefront Genealogy.

[Guest TankerHC]

I've been wanting to start researching the family history but I'm not quite sure what resources to use. Any suggestions? I've seen ancestory.com but haven't heard any feedback so I was hesitant to pay for it.

 

80% of the things you will find on Ancestry you can get without paying for. The other 20% is wrong.