Scottish Ancestors

[Cawdorian]

I'm not that lucky. I'm a Campbell.

Those of us of Campbell descent do have a rough time tracing our ancestors, I have a line of Campbell's on both sides of the family, both result in a brick wall. I have another line of a Campbell sept (Caudle) that is traceable back to Argyll.

I was fortunate to be able to trace my Patrick (Lamont) ancestors back to 1429 in Ayr, Scotland, thanks to a descendant who took the time and effort to go Scotland and researched the kirk records.

Another line I have difficulties with is my Gregory family line, which is probably my closest Scottish connection. In talking with some other Clan Gregor descendants I have been told that the McGregor's and their septs can be difficult to trace back to Scotland because many of them were transported to the USA as prisoners.

Genealogy is loads of fun, I like to unearth the black sheep and other interesting and possibly unsavory characters in the various family lines.

[Jock Scot]

Well done.I can see not only an I o S kilt arriving,as Rex has suggested ,but a trip to the island as well.In the near future?

[auld argonian]

As I mentioned in earlier threads, a well-to-do member of my family did almost all the research back in the 1930's...got me to Old James in Londonderry back in the early 1700's. They seem to have recently redone the website that contained the information and shaved it down by removing all of the fun stuff like the spurious stories and speculaton...damn shame.

Anyway, they also included this...I'm sure that some of you have seen it before but it's apropro:

THE THIRTEEN COMMANDMENTS FOR NAMES

From George Horton

A "Tongue-In-Cheek" viewpoint of a family researcher.

(1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, William.

(2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May.

(3) Thou shalt leave No trace of your female children.

(4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey, --- making them difficult to trace.

(5) Thou shalt Not use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where necessary, you may use only initials on legal documents.

(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.

(7) Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplace, burned in a courthouse fire, or buried so that No future trace of them can be found.

(8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendo regarding your place of origin:

(A) You may have come from: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales...or Iran.

You may have American Indian ancestry of the _____ tribe...

(C) You may have descended from one of three brothers that came over from ____.

(9) Thou shalt leave No cemetery records, or headstones with legible names.

(10) Thou shalt leave No family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths.

(11) Thou shalt Always flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.

(12) Thou must also flip thy parents' names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative.

(13) Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers.

Best

AA

[Thunderbolt]

As I mentioned in earlier threads, a well-to-do member of my family did almost all the research back in the 1930's...got me to Old James in Londonderry back in the early 1700's. They seem to have recently redone the website that contained the information and shaved it down by removing all of the fun stuff like the spurious stories and speculaton...damn shame.

Anyway, they also included this...I'm sure that some of you have seen it before but it's apropro:

THE THIRTEEN COMMANDMENTS FOR NAMES

From George Horton

A "Tongue-In-Cheek" viewpoint of a family researcher.

(1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, William.

(2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May.

(3) Thou shalt leave No trace of your female children.

(4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey, --- making them difficult to trace.

(5) Thou shalt Not use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where necessary, you may use only initials on legal documents.

(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.

(7) Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplace, burned in a courthouse fire, or buried so that No future trace of them can be found.

(8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendo regarding your place of origin:

(A) You may have come from: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales...or Iran.

You may have American Indian ancestry of the _____ tribe...

(C) You may have descended from one of three brothers that came over from ____.

(9) Thou shalt leave No cemetery records, or headstones with legible names.

(10) Thou shalt leave No family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths.

(11) Thou shalt Always flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.

(12) Thou must also flip thy parents' names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative.

(13) Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers.

Best

AA

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

[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]

...
(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.

[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.