Surnames, Does it really reveal your heritage?

QUESTION!!!!

My surname is Thompson and I have been able to trace my father's family back to the mid- 1800's when they came over from Ireland, but I can't get any further. Though it has no real effect on the price of a dozen eggs, I would love to know if there's a way to trace further.

My mother's family name is Reynolds. My grandfather has told me that this is an Irish name. He has also told me that it is English, Scottish and eleventy-twelve other origins. I don't suppose it denotes Irish in our case, as my great-great-grandparents came from Holland and England. As with my father's family, I can't get further than the port they sailed from.

Anharyd! could you please give us the exact website for the genes reunited? I found several on the internet. the one I found was this one.

http://www.gendir.com

Is this the one you are talking about. If it is good, I would like to add it to the thread, Best of websites. let me know.

I've managed to get a bit of free info by just typing the name into various search engines. My natural dad was a Broemer, decended from Casper Broemer, a gardener or blacksmith in Weimer, Germany (1841). The name Broemer has some Celtic influnce to it. In the German language it translate as berry picker and in the Gaelic it is swamp dweller. Lucky me. However it seems that Broemer men have a tendency to marry UK women. My 3x great grandmother was a "Solomon" from Cornwall, the 2x grandmother was Harriette Kelly daughter of Thomas and Mary (Van Stone) Kelly and great grandmother was a Laity, also a Cornish name. My Italian side, from my mother I have traced back to the 1600's (erspamer and Constantini).

And yes, I married a red headed German Irish lass before I even knew my family history-Go figure. So keep plugging away-somewhere someone will put the info in a "free space"

Like many of my fellow listeners and researchers, my clan Surname is of both Scottish and Irish ancestry. It is written that my ancestors had holdings in Ireland after they were driven from Scotland by the Romans around 357 A.D. and fled to Ireland. They later returned to Scotland somewhere around the 11th century to help in the fight against viking invaders. For their service, they were granted the land of East Dingwell in Ross-shire which became the Barony of Foulis. From there, they spread into Strathspey and were granted charter to lands there for service as bailies to the Macdonalds, Earls of Ross and Lords of the Isles. It is said that one of the Munro chieftains was an original commander for the Black Watch when it was raised in 1725.

My family (both maternal & paternal) has been in America since before the American Revolution. They were mostly Irish & Scottish, some were French & English. Some participated in the fight against the British. Some sided with the British. So...for the better part of 280 years, and more (if you count ALL the branches), my ancestors have become, and are, American. They fought for and helped to build this country. Some married into Indian Nations. A few went to Canada..

I'd heard all my life, since I was a "wee lass", that my paternal ancestors came from Ireland. Some tiny little tidbits of information have managed to weave their way down through the generations. Just didn't know where in Ireland. And before that they came from Scotland. Recent years and research from many finally found the immigrant ancestors, and where in Ireland they came from...they came from the North. Haven't found the Scottish link(s) yet.

There are many who call themselves....Whatever-American even though their ancestors may have come from another country hundreds of years ago. I don't call myself Irish-American, Ulster-American, or Scots-American. I'm just...American, with say, Celtic ancestry.

My thoughts are this: I don't want those ancestors, at least those that I know about, to be forgotten...all they worked for, all the hardships, pain, sorrow, joys...they endured...for ME. For US. So much about them has been lost forever. What little we do know.....we cherish. I love them, and so proud of them, proud of their accomplishments, proud that they persevered. They are in me. I am THEM.

I'd hope that future generations would know me, know who I am, who I was....and want to know me as I want to know those previous ancestors.

This is kinda interesting. My surname Moore I always understood to be british, yet it comes from my irish ancestors (County Galway).
Interesting.

Hey JP, I can relate. One of my great-grandmothers was a Carleton. You look it up and it says English. However, my great-grandmother and her descendants were born and raised in Ireland!

I guess it really boils down to if you see the glass as half empty or half full. My ancestors came from Scotland, lived in Ireland---but didn't marry Irish, & then moved to the US. I don't consider them Irish. The kids were from Scot parents & moved to the US. So, are they Americans? Not to me. Scots.

FREEEEEEEEDOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my wifes mothers maiden name was reynolds and she has traced her family back to ireland and also to holland and scotland

Hey Cori. My wife typed in the last message for me but forgot to include a link. this is to the Conover geneology which is related to her side of the reynolds clan. Hope it helps uncover something for you

http://www.conovergenealogy.com/

my maiden name is snowdon and yet they have been traced to clackmannan in scotland.....then there is the campbell which was traced to ireland and then mcgregor...geesh that makes me some kind of mixed bag,eh??

My wife is a Viken-Viking from Norway, they invaded France and hence the word Norman, they lived in a town south of Paris called Normanville, an ancestor of her's excepted a possition with William the Conqueror and became his Squire, after the invation of England Squire Normanville settled in Scotland, after a couple hundred years a descendant changed his name to Norville, a few hundred years after that a descendant moved to London and changed the name to Norton, Noville and Norton means North Town or Village, in Ireland it's McNaughton, no she has English, Skote, Norman, and Norse what is she now, and don't say American, the only reason you can be considered American is because you were born here, that dosen't count

: Yes & No, the yes answers are obvious, the No answere, many people changed there last name for many reasons, England forbade any one with a foreign name to reside in England, some changed so as not to show affliation with a notorious nation, in Switzerland my last name was Brügger, in Alsace Germany it was changed to Brücker, after the arrival in Pennsylvania they changed it Bricker, it still has the same meaning in German and English,, someone who lives near or by a bridge, Brücke without the r is German for bridge, we have lived as Deutsch-German for hundreds of years, now we find out through DNA that we are Keltic-Kelten from Taurini, now part of Piedmont Canton Italy, Tau means Mountain, Taurini people of the Alpine Mountains,

I claim the once upon a time country of Taurini as my Heritage and rename it
Tau-Taurini,

Interesting thread. One part of our family that migrated to Oz from Scotland has a distinctly Spanish surname! And they very carefully covered their tracks for whatever reasons. The mind boggles. So many tantalising questions.

I wonder how much one of those genetic DNA test costs? I would love to do something like that. My father's side is from Sicily. I read some where Sicily was a penal colony governed by the Moors (who would be from northwest Africa). Since I can't get anywhere on my dad's side outside his and my grandmother's death certificate, I would love to know where their ancestors originated from beyond Sicily. But as of now, I am stuck.