Surname Searches and What Information They Can Yield

Open any telephone book and take a look at how many listings there are for some names, like Smith or Brown. That’s because many centuries ago, people were called only by one name, like “Joanna.” Surnames were unheard of then.

As time went on, some people began to add tribal specifications to the “given” name, like “Jameson of York,” “Essau of Levi,” or “Elk Running, of the Apache Tribe.” But the second name still wasn’t a “surname” as we now know it. It was a designation or possibly, even a destination; a place.

While most early Europeans used locations behind a given name, most American Indian tribes gave a description of the person’s looks or talents with a second name. The Indians often changed second names several times during their lives as their deeds warranted. For example, “Running Deer” could have become “Mighty Warrior” after a battle.

Over time, the second name – now called the “surname” – often became associated with professions as well, like “Smith,” which originated from “Blacksmith,” which was a common profession on the American frontier.

In the mid-1860s, after slavery was abolished, many former slaves adopted the names of their former owners or gave themselves a surname of their choice.

Most surnames, however, can lead back thousands of years.

With more than five billion surnames recorded online in databases like Roots.com and Ancestry.com, it becomes a matter of seeing which of the people with the same surname as you are actually from the same family, or clan.

DNA knowledge has become key in determining this. There are several ongoing projects that are free to participants. They exist for the sole purpose of adding names and family stories to the databases so that they can further expand and help more people with their genealogical research.

Looking for relatives through surname searches can mean that several genealogical searches can be added together whenever matches are found and whole new branches can be added to family trees.

Going online and doing obituary and cemetery searches can often lead to groups of people who are buried in a family plot. Sometimes it’s easier to find the dead than the living!

But if people are still alive in other parts of the world with the same surname as you, DNA tests are needed to be sure the lineage is matching. Nowadays, kits to do this at home are easily available online. These tests have proved something scientists didn’t know before: that not everyone with the same surname is related – even distantly. The new testing methods can prove which family groups originated from the same, or different, lines, and usually where they came from as well.

Another way to go about genealogical searching by surname is by checking out symbols, coats of arms and crests. Perhaps there’s an old family heirloom in Grandfather Jone’s attic sporting a crest or symbol that actually has historical meaning for a family.

You can research your family crest, coat of arms or symbol online in the same way you would a name. There are even sites that describe the meaning behind the symbols most often found on these crests. To locate these, simply type in “heraldry” or “clans and mottos” in the search line. Just as nations, ethnic groups and religious denominations have flags and symbols reflecting their identity, so do families.

Now it’s up to you to search for yours!