Very interesting to trace heritage and see where your different lines of the family originated, and some stories that you find. My mother was one of ten children, being the third one, and the older girl. Two older brothers decided about 20 years ago (so I think about 2003-2005, they were in their 70's) to give up a little bit of family secret. One younger brother was also into genealogy and found some things. My grandfather had been keeping some secrets from the family... and he passed away without revealing some of them in the early 1960's. His last name was not the one he was living under. He disassociated himself from his family in his early 20's, but kept a photograph of himself and two or three other young people. One of those boys in the photo responded to a request about the photo saying they were brothers in that photo and gave us their last name. For a few months they traded emails and stories but then decided to cut off all communication. My mother's family name is "Waldron" but his real name was "Walgrenary" ... if I spelled it correctly. He made sure to keep the "W" because of things that had an initial on it. We now have photos of my great-grandfather and all his family, where they lived when they migrated to the US, the boat they were on ... and we know they came from an area close to Italy and the father was a tailor for some important people in the late 1800's and early 1900's over there. What a big secret!
Our family lore tells us that my mom's side is largely from Ireland, Scotland, and England (I think I have that right), and my dad's side was English and perhaps Irish, it think. I know that my parents corrected my middle name from MacNaul to McNaull.
Interestingly, DNA showed a lot of Scandinavian heritage, especially on my dad's side. The math does check out, though, if you look at us both.
Strangely I have a similar Dutch-Scottish conundrum. That is, there is a line of Enlows on my maternal grandfather's side that are either Dutch or Scottish. Was there some sort of Dutch emigration to Scotland? No idea. The other mystery of this line is that they contend, my grandfather was a big supporter and believer, that Abraham Lincoln's real biological father was an Abraham Enloe of NC, essentially knocking up Nancy and then sending her on her way to Kentucky where she married Tom Lincoln. For fun, sharing an interview with my grandfather which mentions the legend... https://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/writer-sculptor-historian-musician-painter/article_04cebc9e-a8c8-5b88-9fd5-323541f531c7.html
In addition to the 5-6th century invasion of Angles and Saxons from roughly Northern Germany into Southern England, there was a large movement of Scandinavian peoples (Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc. weren't even a glimmer of countries then), with the Viking invasions of England in the 7-11th centuries. Many of these peoples settled along the coasts and intermarried and brought their customs, traditions, language, and most importantly in your quest, their names. A lot of these peoples immigrated into Northumbria which was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland. Perhaps this history may "solve" some of the distal mystery for you? Kenneth Harl's "Vikings" may give some broad strokes of the history here if you're curious: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/vikings. (Naturally there may have been migration after that time too.) England is far more diverse in its roots than the majority give it credit for, though the branching from Celtic roots may mean that genetically traceable differences may largely be a wash for most. Some from the broader UK will find only a single broad "genetic smear" of Celtic ancestry with a 1-2% hint of Italian ancestry, often resulting from intermarriage at the time of the Roman invasion in the first century.
From my father's side I'm a direct descendent of three or four people who arrived on the Mayflower. My mom was able to trace her family to the Civil War. If I ever get the time, I'd be curious to see if I can go back further.
Thanks for sharing, it's always interesting to read about other people's genealogy.
I don’t find the name change quite as mysterious- my own last name is a changed one, an anglicized form of a Hungarian last name. It happened a lot, and perhaps David R. just went with it, since it was on his documents?
I don’t know very much about my family tree at all, so all of it is a mystery I want to solve some day! Why did my Hungarian ancestors come here? I don’t even know the names of all of my great-grandparents, actually, so that might be a better place to start...
Yes accident, ignorance and also coloinisation and migration. Many spellings were changed, leading to altering pronunciations. Rao to Ray, Uppal to Opal, Olshen to Olsen,
A really interesting post - tracing ancestry is always a fascinating (and frequently very frustrating) experience. My family tree branches seem to wither and die far too close to the 20th century, whereas my wife's can be traced back far, far longer. Maybe it's time I start to dig into it again ... thanks for the inspiration!
Ancient method in India of keeping records, for generations. There is something called gotra which is a record of unbroken male line...for 1000s of years.
People from the same gotra are not allowed to marry even today. Making India one of the most genetically diverse countries.
So the DNA tests are interesting coz Indian folks just went to the Pandas (some representatives came to our homes every few years and had us write in a book. There we could see the handwriting of our ancestors on the same page).
I've never been interested in tracing my family history, but earlier this year I felt the need to try to lay a long-standing family mystery to rest - I wanted to know one way or the other whether a connection that my grandfather had claimed as ours actually existed.
Very interesting to trace heritage and see where your different lines of the family originated, and some stories that you find. My mother was one of ten children, being the third one, and the older girl. Two older brothers decided about 20 years ago (so I think about 2003-2005, they were in their 70's) to give up a little bit of family secret. One younger brother was also into genealogy and found some things. My grandfather had been keeping some secrets from the family... and he passed away without revealing some of them in the early 1960's. His last name was not the one he was living under. He disassociated himself from his family in his early 20's, but kept a photograph of himself and two or three other young people. One of those boys in the photo responded to a request about the photo saying they were brothers in that photo and gave us their last name. For a few months they traded emails and stories but then decided to cut off all communication. My mother's family name is "Waldron" but his real name was "Walgrenary" ... if I spelled it correctly. He made sure to keep the "W" because of things that had an initial on it. We now have photos of my great-grandfather and all his family, where they lived when they migrated to the US, the boat they were on ... and we know they came from an area close to Italy and the father was a tailor for some important people in the late 1800's and early 1900's over there. What a big secret!
Our family lore tells us that my mom's side is largely from Ireland, Scotland, and England (I think I have that right), and my dad's side was English and perhaps Irish, it think. I know that my parents corrected my middle name from MacNaul to McNaull.
Interestingly, DNA showed a lot of Scandinavian heritage, especially on my dad's side. The math does check out, though, if you look at us both.
I've never done DNA testing. I've always been leery of it and how the data is secured but I'm really tempted now!
Same here. My folks did it, though, so I was like, "um, thanks?"
Strangely I have a similar Dutch-Scottish conundrum. That is, there is a line of Enlows on my maternal grandfather's side that are either Dutch or Scottish. Was there some sort of Dutch emigration to Scotland? No idea. The other mystery of this line is that they contend, my grandfather was a big supporter and believer, that Abraham Lincoln's real biological father was an Abraham Enloe of NC, essentially knocking up Nancy and then sending her on her way to Kentucky where she married Tom Lincoln. For fun, sharing an interview with my grandfather which mentions the legend... https://www.fredericknewspost.com/archive/writer-sculptor-historian-musician-painter/article_04cebc9e-a8c8-5b88-9fd5-323541f531c7.html
Interesting, I've never heard of this controversy about Lincoln's father! Now I'm curious about Dutch emigration as well!
In addition to the 5-6th century invasion of Angles and Saxons from roughly Northern Germany into Southern England, there was a large movement of Scandinavian peoples (Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, etc. weren't even a glimmer of countries then), with the Viking invasions of England in the 7-11th centuries. Many of these peoples settled along the coasts and intermarried and brought their customs, traditions, language, and most importantly in your quest, their names. A lot of these peoples immigrated into Northumbria which was an early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom in what is now Northern England and south-east Scotland. Perhaps this history may "solve" some of the distal mystery for you? Kenneth Harl's "Vikings" may give some broad strokes of the history here if you're curious: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/vikings. (Naturally there may have been migration after that time too.) England is far more diverse in its roots than the majority give it credit for, though the branching from Celtic roots may mean that genetically traceable differences may largely be a wash for most. Some from the broader UK will find only a single broad "genetic smear" of Celtic ancestry with a 1-2% hint of Italian ancestry, often resulting from intermarriage at the time of the Roman invasion in the first century.
From my father's side I'm a direct descendent of three or four people who arrived on the Mayflower. My mom was able to trace her family to the Civil War. If I ever get the time, I'd be curious to see if I can go back further.
Thanks for sharing, it's always interesting to read about other people's genealogy.
I bet just about everyone has something interesting in their geneology!
I don’t find the name change quite as mysterious- my own last name is a changed one, an anglicized form of a Hungarian last name. It happened a lot, and perhaps David R. just went with it, since it was on his documents?
I don’t know very much about my family tree at all, so all of it is a mystery I want to solve some day! Why did my Hungarian ancestors come here? I don’t even know the names of all of my great-grandparents, actually, so that might be a better place to start...
Great-grandparents does sound like a great place to start. I think names did get changed a lot, either by accident or through ignorance.
Yes accident, ignorance and also coloinisation and migration. Many spellings were changed, leading to altering pronunciations. Rao to Ray, Uppal to Opal, Olshen to Olsen,
A really interesting post - tracing ancestry is always a fascinating (and frequently very frustrating) experience. My family tree branches seem to wither and die far too close to the 20th century, whereas my wife's can be traced back far, far longer. Maybe it's time I start to dig into it again ... thanks for the inspiration!
You may find this interesting...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_genealogy_registers_at_Haridwar
Ancient method in India of keeping records, for generations. There is something called gotra which is a record of unbroken male line...for 1000s of years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotra
People from the same gotra are not allowed to marry even today. Making India one of the most genetically diverse countries.
So the DNA tests are interesting coz Indian folks just went to the Pandas (some representatives came to our homes every few years and had us write in a book. There we could see the handwriting of our ancestors on the same page).
A fascinating story, Mark!
I've never been interested in tracing my family history, but earlier this year I felt the need to try to lay a long-standing family mystery to rest - I wanted to know one way or the other whether a connection that my grandfather had claimed as ours actually existed.
It doesn't! 🤣