Birth and death dates are very helpful to narrow people down, and if you can add a middle name, so much the better.
In an example of such a system, Ben Johnson's son would then be Dave Benson. Your last name can give you clues into who you are and where you came from. The establishment of a family name would have started by class, with the wealthy landowners using them for identification before rural peasants. The establishment of a family name would have started by class, with the wealthy landowners using them for identification before rural peasants. Over time many names became corrupted and their original meaning is now not easily seen. Enter your last name to find its meaning and origin. Your surname is your last name, your family name, and gives you a sense of belonging to that group of people. The fairly common name of Collins is an example of this.
Digging through scores of records can be frustrating, but staying organized with charts can help narrow down whether you've already crossed off one particular John Jones from your list or whether another from a similar age and city is actually the person you're seeking. Those elements are not part of the surname and are not considered in an alphabetical order. For example, you might see the seemingly easy-to-spell surname Kennedy spelled as Kenedy, Canady, Kanada, Kenneday, and even Kendy due to clerks, ministers, and other officials spelling the name as they heard it pronounced.
A regular contributor to the Family-History press, he is also joint author, with Audrey Collins, of Who was your Granny's Granny? Names deriving from plants and animals are almost certainly nicknames - such as Catt, Sparrow and Oak - but may also be location names or even occupations. Such names include Knight, Squire, Archer, Bowman, Fletcher (arrow maker), Pike and the ubiquitous Smith. Thus you can see that only by tracing a particular family line, possibly back to the 14th century or beyond, will you discover which version of a surname is yours.
In some cases, nicknames are from Norman-French words, such as Papillon (dainty or inconsistent, from butterfly) or Foljambe (deformed leg). Many Irish and Highland Scottish names derive from Gaelic personal names, as do those of the Welsh, who only began to adopt the English system of surnames following the union of the two countries in 1536.
But even knowing his or her occupation could help separate your. The more information you have on a person, the easier it will be to narrow down the information. Similarly with names derived from military occupations, there are no names from firearms, only those derived from the weaponry and occupations around in these early centuries. Among the less obvious are Latimer (interpreter), Leech (physician), Barker (tanner), Jenner (engineer), Milner (miller rather than milliner), Lorimer (bridle and bit maker), Pargiter, Pargetter and Dauber (plasterer), Bannister (bath keeper), and Crowther and Crowder (stringed instrument player). Features of the landscape gave rise to many surnames.
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Names such as Fox, from the crafty animal, or White, perhaps from the hair or complexion, are widespread. Welcome to the place online to find the meaning and origins of your surname.