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Sunday, 31 January 2016

Arts & Humanities: Genealogy: “Question: How often do ancestors change their last names usually?” plus 5 more

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Arts & Humanities: Genealogy: “Question: How often do ancestors change their last names usually?” plus 5 more

Question: How often do ancestors change their last names usually?

Posted: 31 Jan 2016 04:21 PM PST

There are no records for this type of thing. Surnames originally were not started to identify a man as a member of a family but just to better identify him on records, frequently for taxation. Too many men named Tom. Henry, and George in the same town or village and they just had to have a more efficient way of handling records. When they got through legitimate sons of the same man could have wound up with a different surname and still each could have shared his with others with no known relationship. In England, for instance, most had one by the 14th century. Still in many cases it was a couple of more centuries before the same surname was passed down to subsequent generations.

As far as differences in spellings, a lot of that had to do with how an official or clerk heard a name and put it down on a record. Understand there was no standardized spelling until sometime in the 19th century. If you could read it, it was correct. So often time you will see where the same person signed their name using a different spelling.

Surnames aren't family history. Your ancestors are your family history and surnames are just convenient identifiers on records. You might not be related to someone with the same surname as you have in your direct male line be related to that same person in another family line with a different surname you haven't discovered yet. You might not be related to someone with the exact spelling of your name and related to someone with a different spelling.

Ancestry is traced by using documents. You have 2 parents and you prove they are your parents by documents, usually your birth certificate. They each had 2 parents and you prove who they were if they have a birth certificate or even death certificates usually have the names of both parents including mother's maiden name.

Now, there will be a time when there aren't any births or death certificates, then you check censuses, church records for baptisms, and for some confirmation, marriage and death records from churches.
Then there are wills, deeds etc, probate records. You go back one generation at a time and prove each person as you do no matter what their name was.

One way surnames were taken in by the property the person came into/ There is a Papal noble family named Borghese. One of the Prince Borghese married an Aldobrandini and he took the name Aldobrandini. There was no surviving male heir. So surnames came into being because of property a person might have received.

Sometimes they indicated a man was the son of another. Johnson, meaning son of John. A man named John might have had several sons and there was another man name John in the same village. Both had sons named Henry. Some one of the Henrys took the name Johnson and the other Henry took the name of his occupation, such as Smith. They didn't want the 2 Henrys to be confused.

Then there is the name Johnston. A "ton" ending on an English name simply means town or settlement. There is an English settlement in Ulster and the town Johnstown. So very likely Johnstons just had ancestors from Johnstown. Then the time could have come when some clerk confused the name a Johnson with Johnston and it appears that the guy named Johnston was a descendant of someone name Johnson.

Surnames were a choice just like given names.

In the Netherlands and the low countries people as a rule didn't have one until the Emperor Napoleon said they should in the early 1800s. The Dutch thought it would be something temporary and in a spirit of humor gave themselves comical and sometimes rather obnoxious names. Well, the joke turned out to be on them when they found out they would be permanent and they had a hard time getting those names changed. There is town of Nederland about 10 miles from where I am sitting now and it was settled but pioneers who came out in covered wagons and saw a land that was low and flat and close to the water. So they created the town of Nederland and they have discovered what their names could have been. How would you like it if you wound up with the name "Poopsies."

Edit: As far as immigrants are concerned a lot of times they changed their names thinking it would make them sound more American. Some did so as they might wound up being called different things. I have a friend whose father came from Sicily.. Their name is Sachitano. However I knew it had to be changed as the "ch" in Italian is sounded like "k" in English. Anyway my friend has done lots of family research and found the name was originally spelled S'cciatano. She said her brothers and her nephews have had fun thinking of all the different things people would have called them.

In Sweden, for instance I understand Olaf Johanson had sons and his sons became Olafsons. Each generation took the father's given name as their surname. So the surnames got changed each generation. I don't think they still do that.

Question: BruceMcCloud-Age.55. Lives In Torrance. California. 90503. And Bruce.McCloud.-February. 3. 1967.?

Posted: 31 Jan 2016 02:57 PM PST

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