A list of my family tree surnames.....
Last edited Fri Jul 12, 2013, 07:06 PM - Edit history (2)
Hello folks. I saw a thread like this on the old DU and I've decided to give it a shot.
I'll list my surnames on here, as many as I can find; see if you may have some in common with me!
Here, I'll start with my mother's side first, direct descendancy:
Land-My, my, this is an old family. Came to the U.S. via the good ol' First State of Delaware way back when. I am, btw, a direct descendant of the illustrious Rev. War Colonel Joseph Land, Sr., born in VA in 1726.
Tift-Here's the complete opposite of the Lands: came to the U.S. via Canada; I know virtually nothing about them other than that.
Eddy-Well, whaddaya know? Already, another well-known Old American family has made it to my tree. Great-Granma Eddy lived to be 92.....
Train-Seems to be an export from the Alsace-Lorraine region. Very interesting.
Kelva-The one strain of Norwegian(and possibly Finnish!) ancestry. Can't go too far back, though.
Holderby-Local Illinois historians may recognize this family as one of the first pioneer families in that state. Founded the town of Carmi in White County.
Oliver-Yankees of the Mainer variety.
Craig-Dunno much about these fellas. Could be Irish though.
Bozeman-I'm sure you old West aficionados out there might recognize this one.....
Harvey-This line ended up being very interesting, btw. Stay tuned for more details.
Evaleth-Yet another set of Yankees from Maine. (Lobstah, anyone?)
Bayley-This one seems like a dead end so far, sadly.
Weible-German, from Baden.
Dezotell-This one's had me fascinated for some time. French-Canadian and the original immigrant lived to be damn near 100. =)
Cook-Also Canadian. Probably English tho.
Kidney-May originally have been "Kitanie" or something if some sources are correct. May go all the way back to Barbados.
Cherry-Gotta dig deeper into this one! Canadians thru and thru.
Elliott-This one was a real mystery until recently.
Fike-Now this is a strange one. You'd think they'd be German or PA Dutch or something, right? Nope. They're Yankees, too; their name was originally Fitch but somebody at whatever the Brit equivalent of the Census Bureau screwed up somewhere....or maybe it was voluntary. Who knows? In any old case, the new name stuck.
Cross-Cul-de-sac.
Moore-Real mystery here: Was Sarah Ann adopted?
Foushee-Lovely name. Shame I couldn't dig too much deeper, though: could be French?
Patrick-Classically wealthy planters, but decent folks by all accounts.
Jordon-Don't know much yet.
Felix-German immigrants who originally came to....get this.....Lunenburg, Nova Scotia of all places.
Graham-Anuddah mystery.
White-One of THE first families here.
Stringer-I have traced this one line all the way back to Sweden.
Overholt-Badass name, ordinary folks by the looks of it.
Davis-From PA, so not likely relations to Jeff Davis.
Walker-no comment.
Bonney-May be connected to Mary Bonney?
Malachi-Strongly suspect Irish blood though I can't confirm it.
Richardson-no comment.
Kendrick-Virginians.
Bourke-Scottish, it sounds like.
Estes-Okay, now this one's a real gem: If you go back far enough, I happen to share an ancestor with.....none other than Estes Kefauver, the Tennessee Senator.
Wetherbee-no comment.
DuBois-They were an old family, too. Been in New York for almost 4 centuries now(And in fact, one of them even founded New Paltz!).
Abbott-no comment.
Marsh-Jerusha is actually kind of a lovely name, IMO.
Newberry-Medal. =)
Henn-Ah, who knows?
My dad's side now.
Ladd-This branch of the family believe it or not, was actually living in the exact same town.....for darn near 150 years. No kidding!
If you're curious: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield,_Pennsylvania
Powell-Yet another ancient family. May be Welsh, ultimately, though they came from England proper.
Dutcher-Really is Dutch.
Springer-Apparently, a whole bunch of them fled to Canada after the Revolution.
Tuttle-Yet more storied Yankees.
Hill-Ho-hum. Ho-hum.
Wright-Still wondering if they might be related to Orville and Wilbur.
Spitznogle-Funny name. Pennsylvania Dutch, though may or may not be Amish
Guile-Who knows?
Stocum-no comment.
Monroe-No relation to James.
Gage-Couldn't go any further back than the turn of the 19th.
Williams-Run. Of. The. Mill.
Mock-This family had an entire volume of geneological research dedicated to them back in the '80s.
Pullen-Virginians. One of them was named "James Madison".
Weeks-no comment.
Butler-I could try my hand at a joke or two, but I'll refrain.
Seelye-Irish?
Palmer-no comment.
Romer-Originally Romeyn.
Harwood-No comment.
Smith-Can you say, "ubiquitous", anyone?
Bechtoldt-I'd bet my bottom dollar they were Amish.....or something("We went English!", they'll say.).
Brewer-German, maybe?
Watson-Elementary, my dear.
Miller-Standard.
Santer-Dunno. French Huguenot, maybe?
Herrick-Dutch, maybe.
Bassett-No comment.
Todd-My money's on Scotland.
VanTine-Dutch, Dutch, Dutch, Dutch.
Kortright-See above.
Blackmer-Who knows?
Cobb-As in, corn on the ____
Oldham-No comment.
Clinard-French?
Lindsey-English.
Ward-See above.
Moody-From VA.
Vining-Yankees again.
Westervelt-Just found this one.
Hegeman-Also Dutch.
Hughson-Eh.....
And that's just direct descendancy going back 8 generations.
Here's a few other ancestors:
Fox-married into the Williamson line.
Williamson-This ended up being one of the biggest jackpots I'd ever come across. Thru them, I'm connected to the Carters.....the Harrisons.....the Lees....and perhaps a few others I may have missed.
So yeah, it's been a real treat for me. Feel free to comment anytime. 
Edit: I'll also be posting some of the extended branches of my family trees as well, so watch for that, too. 
Taylor-This is a pretty common surname....you'd probably think, "Nothing special.", right? Well, not really. You see, way back when, one of my great-sometimes removed Patrick aunts married into the family of one William Taylor.....who was one of the very first Mormon pioneers. Ain't that a kick in the head?
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ldshistorical&id=I26890
= new reply since forum marked as read
My earliest ancestor that I can confirm is Susan Foushee, born in S.C.(or maybe N.C.) in 1746; she married Nathan Buford Fike sometime circa 1770 or so. Her father's name may have been William but I don't know for sure.
If you have the time send me whatever you can, because I'd like to dig even deeper.
Yes, I am indeed a member of ancestry.com; my username is SteveL1990, and I've been on for over a year.
If you'd like to compare, or are just curious, I will be more than happy to share my own tree with you.
It's only got about 2,800 people in it but it's a good start, I think.
As for interestingly coincidental surnames, there was a guy named "Red" Dezotell who used to be a real famous baseball player back in the day. It'd be interesting to see if I could link myself to him.
I've got a Walker, but she is positively ancient and a dead end.
(Also, cool to see that you're related to the Van Dusens.....gotta wonder if there's a connection between us somewhere. )
Yup, that's where my Wetmore line comes from too, Middletown CT. Amy Seward Wetmore was my 6th ggrandmother. The furthest I could take the name back to was Samuel Wetmore, 1655-1746. His father was Thomas Whitmore, born in Essex, England, died in CT. Apparently, there was a spelling change at that point.
Small world, eh?
On edit, it appears my Samuel and your Izraiah were brothers...
Got anything else?
Did any of your Oldhams live in N.J., btw? Because that's where mine was from.
Also, my earliest Bonney, John, came straight from England, too.....I think his son Richard was born in Virginia, though. Even so, we could potentially still be related.....I'll try to find that book you mentioned. Wish me luck.
at how little I can find on the Oldhams and all the ones I can find are in PA. On my grandfather's side - William Oldham (1778-1864) married Elizabeth Callihan (1784-1861). I know the Callihans were from Ireland and settled in PA, but I don't know where William was from.
On my grandmother's side - Isaac Oldham (1801-1833) married Deborah Caldwell (1805-1889). The Caldwells were from PA, but I don't know where Isaac was born. Edit to add, it appears that Isaac was also born in PA.
I wonder if John Bonney was related to Thomas Bonney. There is a lot of information on Thomas.
I've found a wealth of information recently with Google Books. It wasn't that long ago that you had to go to some local library to find these rare books. Many are free and some are available very reasonably for Kindle.
Good luck! If I find anything else I'll let you know.
I too have Tuttle ancestors. Maybe we're cousins!
Here's an interesting article on some of my Tuttle kin.
Sarah Tuttle was found guilty of being a "bold virgin" when she was young and single. Later, when Sarah was married with two children, she was murdered.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/tuttle/sarah.html
snip:
Sarah died at the hands of her brother, Benjamin on November 17, 1676. Twenty-nine year old Benjamin made his family's name in history with that rather indelicate instrument, the axe. That night he began quarreling with sister, Sarah. A fragment of paper preserved in the CT State Archives contains a statement by Benjamin.
In it he said that he was with his sister, that they had had a falling out, that he was afraid she would do to him what he had done to her, and that he had no love for her. He and Sarah may have been arguing about the division of their dead father's considerable property, or perhaps Sarah made a disparaging remark about their sister, Elizabeth, who was showing the same flirtatious nature as Sarah had. Benjamin may have reminded Sarah that she was no angel; she had scandalized the town in her youth by publicly exchanging kisses with a Dutch sailor, for which she and the sailor were fined.
Whatever the quarrel was about, Benjamin resolved it in a terrible, final manner. He went to the barn, got an axe, returned to the house and struck Sarah on the head, "maulling & mashing her head to many pieces in a barbarous and bloudy maner." Benjamin then ran away and hid in the woods, but was later apprehended and tried and convicted for the murder May 29, 1677.
An official record of the case appears in Crimes, op. cit. Document No. 80:
The article continues with the court transcript: "A veardet of a Jourey's Inqest in Stamford, novemb'r 18th 1676 one the death of Sarah Slason, wif to Jno. Slason; howe was found barbarsley Slayen In hur one hous, as followeth -"
Because I think we have quite a few of these in common...........
They were from Chester County in the 1700s and then moved to Beaver County in the early 1800s. That was my mom's side. On my dad's side I have a Davis but he was from Virginia, waaaay back. He lived through the starving time in Jamestown.
I have a Smith too. But doesn't everyone? 
And I finally confirmed this very recently with an actual Foushee/Foshee family member who's also on Ancestry.com from Alabama.....
So your coworker Foushee is from CT, huh? That is rather interesting, to be sure.....
Re: the DuBois family....never thought I'd say this in a million years, but I'm proud to say that a little cursory research has revealed to me that this is also the same family of none other than.....wait for it.....W.E.B. DuBois. The African-American philosopher & early Civil Rights figure. What a honor!
Also, for any DUers of Italian(particularly Sicilian) heritage, you may be interested by this.
Petta-This one I only recently discovered, but possibly the most interesting yet. Sicilian, but not only that, but they came from a particular town, by the name of Piana del Greci...which happens to be well-known within Italy for it's long-standing Arbereshe Albanian heritage. So they might very well be Albanian, too, on top of that. Married into my Dockery line by way of one Alfred Kubitz, Sr.(mother was Mary Dockery; they themselves married into the very same branch of the Land family that happens to be the very same one that my 4th-great-grandfather came from.)
Barbuzza-Married into the Petta family above. May possibly be Italo-Albanian, as well, given that they came from the same town in Sicily.
LaNeri-The original immigrant was from Genoa.
Pecorara-May have been spelled Pecoraro originally[Interesting tidbit: while on the Wiki article about Francesco Cuccia, a Cosa Nostra associate and former mayor of Piana del Greci I read about a Giorgio Pecoraro who was involved in the local socialist movement lead by Nicolo Barbato around the turn of the century, both of whom died fighting the Mafia. Could he be related to this family?].
Scarlatti-The original immigrant was Sicilian too, but she was from Roccapalumba.
More to come soon.....
Mine are, and go all the way back to the earliest colonial days. (BTW, anything on the Rowlett surname? I'm interested because there was a town in Texas, just east of Dallas, where I grew up, of that name, named after Daniel Rowlett, an early settler who was from Ky., if I'm not mistaken. :hi
Hi there.
All I have so far is one Rowlett, in Henrico County, VA. I've been focusing more on my maternal lineage for a while, so I haven't dug up much more than that, other than her being married to a Godfrey Ragsdale, who somehow survived the massacre of 1644, in which his parents and grandparents were killed. It's more than possible the names are connected though.
And yes, my Williamsons were from Virginia. Richard Williamson, born in London and died in Surry, VA, James, who was in Isle of Wight and Rappahannock, and Margaret, from Isle of Wight, who married William Ball.
Richard Williamson was also a direct ancestor of mine; I believe James would have been my 11th great-great uncle if my Ancestry research adds up.
Do you have an Ancestry account. btw?
Yes, I do. I'm historylovr90 over there, if you want to compare trees.
What I have on my Martha Gough (7th ggm, maternal side) shows her as the daughter of a William Gough and Alice Thacker of Virginia and the wife of John Whitaker. She has brothers John and William. I also have some Tattershalls in my tree, though they're a bit further back.
Stark, yes, I have James Stark and Elizabeth Thornton as my 7 gg parents on my paternal side. I don't think I have your William Taylor, but that's a line I've got to look at again, as I do have Taylors in VA. My Morgans were originally from Wales and then Pennsylvania and down into VA and NC and KY, so there could be someone in our lines connected.
If you have an ancestry dot com account, my user id is historylovr90 over there.