Surnames, Does it really reveal your heritage?

A few years ago there was an article on the Peel castle in the Cleveland paper. The article made it sound like it was the ruins of a specific castle. But you're saying it was a type of castle structure? Interesting. Wonder why they have that name.

And if my name comes from the word pale that certianly describes me if not my grandfather who was nicknamed Brownie because he got so tan. Then again, who would want to be called Moss? That family was nuts. There were 17 kids and every one went by a nickname. I can't keep 4 names straight, 34 would be beyond imagining.

Mailagnas, I didn't know DNA studies were being done for geneological (sp?) purposes. Interesting.

The word peel is from the latin 'palus'... because the first Peel towers were often constructed of wood.

There IS a specific castle called Peel Castle, but I think it's on the Isle of Man!

The whole borders area is dotted with ruined and renovated Peel Towers. When you travel up to Scotland by train, you start seeing the peel towers (mostly ruins) just south of Durham... but I think there are probably a lot more dotted around the English side of the border than just the area I've mentioned.

The borderers have a very interesting history... in many ways much more interesting than the highlands....

Here's a map showing the main area of interest in historical terms...

http://www.pro.gov.uk/pathways/utk/maps/scotinset.htm

The Border Reiver families (not clans) such as Armstrong, Scott and others have colourful histories - well worth reading about.

The land is and was even in historical times - some of the most productive in Scotland - it was therefore a valuable commodity - stealing cattle, stealing sheep, acting as 'protection' racketeers - hmmmm, yes - those must have been frightening times to live in that area!

Thanks Catriona. Now that you mention it, I think the article was on the castle on the Isle of Man.

My Peel ancestors emmigrated from Bedlington in Northumberland, which I understand is near the coast and was at that time(1836) a coal mining region, which seems fitting as they moved into a coal mining area in Pennsylvania and my grandfather was a coal miner. I wonder what it was like earlier.

I have a gut feeling that most of my ancestors might have been from the borders region. When the English crown chose families for the plantation of Ulster, did they mostly come from the borders or was it more widespread throughout the lowland(protestant) areas? We have a branch that came from Ulster in 1803- Anderson. I understand that is a pretty common name. Is there a particular region Andersons are from or are they from about everywhere?

I forgot, which region is Edinburgh part of? Lothian? That's not considered to be a border region is it? Too far north right? I don't have the map with the regions handy.

According to my freshman German class it is a calculator.


(I only took German for 4 weeks, transferred to a school that did not offer German )

Yes, I took Spanish when I was in high school, and I majored in Russian Area Studies in college

a Taschenrechner is a calculator... *nods*

I'd love to learn Russian, since I plan to travel to there one fine day...

In that case: Ich habe einen anständigen Taschenrechner an Radio Shack für weniger als $50.00 gekauft.

I also took Spanish in High School, but I don't speak it or German (I've been cheating on the German, I use this website to translate for me: http://www.freetranslation.com/). I have a hard enough time speaking American English (Midwest dialect, though have been accused by a cousin of sounding like I'm from Texas )

MacEoghainn

well, a decent german-english online dictionary is http://dict.leo.org.
They also offer their service for french-german now... but I would guess that isn't much use to you

It could translate "Je suis fromage" for me

(basically the only French I know)

It was surprisingly easy for me. If you know the Greek alphabet, you can figure out Russian. Unfortunately, I have forgotten a lot of it in the past couple of years.

My great-grandfather didn't end his "sinning" with his marriage to my great-grandmother, years latter he ran off with his oldest daughters best friend. Talk about rolling over in your grave!

My immigrant Pixler/Bixler/Bichsel ancestor was Christian Bixler b.October 05, 1706 in Sumiswald, Eggiwill, Bern, Switzerland and immigrated to Cocalico Township, Lancaster, Pennsylvania sometime before 1734. His wife's name was Catherine Shearer, also born in Switzerland about 1715.

The Pixler/Bixler/Bichsel's stayed in the Lancaster area until my ancestor, John Pixler b.June 05, 1801, got lost and wandered over the border into Virginia (what is now Monongalia County, West Virginia) and married a young Irish lass (about 1825) named Elizabeth Henry (daughter of James and Elizabeth Henry, both born in Ireland).

MacEoghainn

That's great! I love languages and what one can do with them: to communicate! I had English, French, Latin (urrrgh!) and Spanish at school and learnt a bit Italian...
Not long ago I started to study Scots...will still take some time, I'm afraid. I love to listen to the sound of Scottish voices!

Russian is very interesting, too...perhaps one day...

learning languages is alot of fun I think. I started on Italian when I was just 7 but didn't do much until I took it again in school 10 years later. I've also learned English and French in school and I'm currently learning Finnish...

I absolutely love being able to communicate with people from all over the world...

Finnish...you have friends over there, havn't you? Must be interesting; a very different language!
I'd agree, learning languages definitely can be fun! And when I'm travelling a country I prefer understanding and speaking its language good enough to be able to communicate with the people there...Then you have a chance to REALLY get to know country and people and to see and visit places remote from the tourist centers.

yup, that's what I love about it.

I was going to travel to finland this year but becoming pregnant made that plan void We were going to visit a few friends and go and see the midnight sun...