Scottish Ancestors

[Galician]

Very nice work, Sister. I gather the original form of the name is MacKarter. So is Karter a given name in old Scotland? If not, what would the name mean?

[slohairt]

MacKarter and MacArthur are both Anglicisations of Mac Artair which means son of Artar (Arthur).

[Big Paul]

Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to family history...

Agreed!

I would add Magaret to the list of female names and Charles to the male list!! LOL

In my family I have a Charles William.. His nic name is "Hoot"

[gilmore]

this sounds ok, is there a uk version of this?

It is international. You order a kit, which I think is free, swab the inside of your cheek, and mail the kit back to the US. In a few weeks the results are posted on their website, www.ftdna.com, which is accessible from anywhere in the world.

You have the option of keeping the results confidential, but I personally think it is a good idea not to do so. It can be helpful to other researchers, and eventually to yourself, to share the information.

[gilmore]

...
(6) Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or mis-spelled, in various ways: Hicks, Hick, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks, or Robinson, Robertson, Robison, Roberson, Robuson, Robson, Dobson.
...

Very often the records that you come across are not written by your ancestor but by clerks, especially court clerks here in the US, so what you see is how they spelled the name, not how your ancestor did.

Another important thing to remember is that the notion of correct spelling is relatively recent and did not exist before the early 19th century when dictionary usage became common. Before then everyone spelled words as they sounded to them. That was the way it had been done for millenia.

We have a photocopy of a deed from the 1750's in Virginia colony which was indexed under one spelling, contains a second spelling in the body of the deed, and my ancestor's signature was copied in a third spelling, the same spelling we use today, incidentally. Which was correct? All of them and none of them.

It could be worse. I am now researching a surname, Shofich, that seems to have been most commonly spelled Szyjowicz where it originated. One variation is Chwick. Another is Haifetz.

[McFarkus]

I was fortunate to be able to piggy-back on research done by various cousins on both sides of the family, and while there are a few brick walls, I have been able to trace the various lines back well beyond their arrival in the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries (there was one on the first boat to Jamestown in 1607, and several on the Mayflower).

A free site that I've found useful that gives you access to others research is www.rootsweb.com. Once you have put in your ancestor's name (I find it good to put in the next to oldest in the line) if there is a finding in Worldconnect, click on that. You can then narrow down the results using spouse name, parents, dates, etc. I've found this very useful in extending my tree.

[bjproc]

It is international. You order a kit, which I think is free, swab the inside of your cheek, and mail the kit back to the US. In a few weeks the results are posted on their website, www.ftdna.com, which is accessible from anywhere in the world.

You have the option of keeping the results confidential, but I personally think it is a good idea not to do so. It can be helpful to other researchers, and eventually to yourself, to share the information.

thanks Gilmore

one more question

i'm named after my fathers mothers side of the family, so the male test would not be accurate to my surname ?

(my dad doesn't know who his father is & grans keeping quite about it )

[gilmore]

thanks Gilmore

one more question

i'm named after my fathers mothers side of the family, so the male test would not be accurate to my surname ?

(my dad doesn't know who his father is & grans keeping quite about it )

That's correct. The Y DNA test will show you men whose patrlineal ancestors match or, more likely, closely match, your own patrilineal ancestors, whatever the surname.

(In some cultures and ethnic groups, such as Scandanavians and Eastern European Jews, were not used until relatively late in history [well, later than elsewhere in Europe], so the results there often show several surnames.)

In your case it would not be unreasonable to expect to discover your father's biological father's surname.

[bjproc]

That's correct. The Y DNA test will show you men whose patrlineal ancestors match or, more likely, closely match, your own patrilineal ancestors, whatever the surname.

(In some cultures and ethnic groups, such as Scandanavians and Eastern European Jews, were not used until relatively late in history [well, later than elsewhere in Europe], so the results there often show several surnames.)

In your case it would not be unreasonable to expect to discover your father's biological father's surname.

very interesting

thanks a lot for that

edit;

got an email back from them (i emailed them earlier on today) and they say it would be better to put it in the adopted group, because of the unknown grandfather (male side)

(btw, my mother thinks theres a bit italian in him )

[TheKiltedWonder]

I am now researching a surname, Shofich, that seems to have been most commonly spelled Szyjowicz where it originated. One variation is Chwick. Another is Haifetz.

Are you telling me that US county clerks weren't fluent in Polish? Shofich is a pretty good phonetic transcription. And I wouldn't be surprised if Haifetz were transcribed by a Yiddish/Hebrew speaker.

I think everyone here can attest to how lucky PandDnun was in taking her family back that far and having a little information about their lives as well. Beyond misspellings, alternate-spellings and overlooked information, you all have forgotten to mention the difficulty some have in reading old handwriting. I've seen some rather inventive interpretations of old German cursive (confusing a "J" for a "Y" and explaining that "Yohannes" was confused because of the way "J" is pronounced in German )

There are so many obstacles; that's what makes the chase so fun and the success mentioned here so refreshing and addicting and just plain great.