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Has anyone been able to find where his or her last name came from?

the_ex

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not really

i know its scottish but i really dont want to pay money to see what yt man raped my ancestor so..............
 

Shy Vy

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One of my relatives from Virginia way back in the day married into the nearby "Cumbo" family and it is theorized that name comes from Angolans who arrived in Jamestown in the early 17th century. And that it is derived from Kambol which is a royal name associated with the Kingdom of Ndongo. Their monarch was the legendary Queen Nzinga. Many of my distant relatives still have the Cumbo last name.


Queen Nzinga


Photo+of+Queen+Nzinga+of+Angola.jpg
 

Surreal

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My surname is Irish Gaelic and rather uncommon. They say only 5,000 people in America have this surname, but it may just be the way we spell it. It has dozens of different spellings and with the way we spell it, you can pronounce it two different ways. I don't know what ancestor we get the name from. We're in Mississippi but they say most people with this surname live in South Carolina. And I think in South Carolina, there's a plantation with the same name,using the spelling we use. So I haven't been able to connect the dots.

However, for many other surnames in my family, they all trace back to a white male ancestor that was a slaver or the son of a plantation owner.

The surname I've been able to trace the farthest back is the Magee to MacGhee, to MacGehee, McGehee, to McGhee, etc. (going back from Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia) all the way back to McGregor to Clan Gregor of Argyll, Highland Scotland in the 1500s. The most interesting thing about them is that they were called "the children of the mist," and they got exiled from Scotland in the early 1600s, that's why they ran away to Virginia.

Another surname I trace pretty far back comes from Sussex, England. Our ancestor changed the spelling of the name when he migrated from there to Virginia around the 1620s. It's a Germanic name.
 

MiyahLee

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Nope but I know it came from the Irish. You know they group of people who swear they are innocent when it comes to slavery...
 

Quiet Storm1

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I know my last name is German and is spelled with C but is also spelled with K.. My family is from the south and the name is from my grandfather and his father b/c my great grandmom had a different last name.. I'm sure It was from a small plantation.. My name is not common in my state, I'm usually the only one in my class, school, job with my last name. From what I researched so far, it started in Virginia and the name populated throughout the Atlantic Coast, also New York, the North and South Carolina, and the rest of the south states. So it's evident to have come from slavery.
 

Pink Coconut

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I thought my last name was a basic British but according to forebears.io its most prevalent in India?
 

DannyBanton

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Shetland Islands, Scotland. Was a late venture into Slavery just before transatlantic slave trade ended so at the same time my Family line with the name was probably the last to leave Africa, oral history says as much.
 

Pink Coconut

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British ruled India.
I’m well aware of that but Indians did not take British surnames. If anything it might be a angelicized version of a Bengali surname from what I’ve researched. There’s a high population of Bengali people in Kolkata, India which is one of the Indian cities where indentured servants were brought from to my home country and then it was angelicized at that point but I don’t know much about my family history.
 
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Sumeria

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I’m well aware of that but Indians did not British surnames. If anything it might be a angelicized version of a Bengali surname from what I’ve researched. There’s a high population of Bengali people in Kolkata, India which is one of the Indian cities where indentured servants were brought from to my home country and then it was angelicized at that point but I don’t know much about my family history.

My Great great grandparents were from Kolkata too. 1 set had an Anglicised last name too. It's most common in Guyana and India.
 

april46

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My surname is Irish Gaelic and rather uncommon. They say only 5,000 people in America have this surname, but it may just be the way we spell it. It has dozens of different spellings and with the way we spell it, you can pronounce it two different ways. I don't know what ancestor we get the name from. We're in Mississippi but they say most people with this surname live in South Carolina. And I think in South Carolina, there's a plantation with the same name,using the spelling we use. So I haven't been able to connect the dots.

However, for many other surnames in my family, they all trace back to a white male ancestor that was a slaver or the son of a plantation owner.

The surname I've been able to trace the farthest back is the Magee to MacGhee, to MacGehee, McGehee, to McGhee, etc. (going back from Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia) all the way back to McGregor to Clan Gregor of Argyll, Highland Scotland in the 1500s. The most interesting thing about them is that they were called "the children of the mist," and they got exiled from Scotland in the early 1600s, that's why they ran away to Virginia.

Another surname I trace pretty far back comes from Sussex, England. Our ancestor changed the spelling of the name when he migrated from there to Virginia around the 1620s. It's a Germanic name.


My paternal great grandmother was a McGee until she married my great grandfather of whom I carry his German surname that has been Anglicized.
 

Pwussycat

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Idk but I know some native Americans with my lastname but it probably came from white pll (n)
 

BudgieMama89

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I'm trying. It's French but originated in Hungary apparently...still trying to get everything confirmed and also trace my actual roots back to Africa.

It's hard since no one kep records on slaves. Ugh.
 

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My paternal great grandmother was a McGee until she married my great grandfather of whom I carry his German surname that has been Anglicized.

Were they Southern Mississippi/Louisiana Magees? Those are the most recent ones I'm related to.
 

april46

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Interesting. One of my 3rd great-grandmothers was a Magee, born in Alabama. Does the name Elizabeth Magee, wife of Elezar/Lezor Bickham mean anything?

I wish I could say that it does but it doesn't. To be honest I'm not actually sure how she became a Mcgee. My great great grandmother name was Annie Ross/Davis. I found one record that stated Annie was listed as a MaGee so I don't know if she was married to one or what the situation was. I suspect my great grandmother's father is not who the census has listed. All the other children surname was Davis. You know how that goes...
 
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AnnDee

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I’m not sure. I have my dad’s last name which came from his mother and grandmother who never married. I looked at the county my great grandma is from and I can’t find any slave owners with that last name. However I did find some with my 2x great grandmother’s maiden name. It’s possible her husband (we have his last name) was from another area but all I know about him is his name. Both of my great grandmother’s parents were dead by the time she was 7. I think perhaps my family might have just picked it after the Civil War.

As far as my paternal grandfather’s line although I don’t have his last name, it goes directly to a slave owner whose family immigrated from England. He sired my black ancestor.
 

MEEEETOOO

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My last name is Irish even though we originated in Scotland, but later migrated to Ireland. We do have a long family history of knights, warriors, ministers and activists, we also have a family crest/coat of arms and a slogan/war cry/motto..

We had a family castle but of course it's in ruins and a tourist attraction now. My family migrated from Ireland to the USA landing in NYC. My grandfather and his family eventually moved to Atlanta where allot of the family still resides..

I recently found out my grandmothers father was also from Ireland, even though she was born after slavery, I'm almost certain her conception was due to rape, under the circumstances I can't imagine the xes was consensual..
 

sheba2004

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I wish I could say that it does but it doesn't. To be honest I'm not actually sure how she became a Mcgee. My great great grandmother name was Annie Ross/Davis. I found one record that stated Annie was listed as a MaGee so I don't know if she was married to one or what the situation was. I suspect my great grandmother's father is not who the census has listed. All the other children surname was Davis. You know how that goes...

Sometimes it can be tricky with surnames because of marriage, let me explain what I have noticed... I'm noticing that when a woman remarries sometimes her children still in the household take on the new husband's surname. For example my ggg-grandmother married 3 times. Three of her children were by the first husband. My gg-grandmother was the oldest and when she married she had her father's surname. First husband dies and she remarries, the 2 sons from the first marriage are still in the household and they all take on 2nd husband's surname. The sons marry with the second husband's surname. There is also a biological child(a girl) by the second husband. Second husband dies, ggg-grandma remarries and the girl child from husband #2 is still in the household so she winds up with the 3rd husband's surname.

If you haven't found a marriage to a McGee, then perhaps it was because of a similar situation like above?
 

april46

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Sometimes it can be tricky with surnames because of marriage, let me explain what I have noticed... I'm noticing that when a woman remarries sometimes her children still in the household take on the new husband's surname. For example my ggg-grandmother married 3 times. Three of her children were by the first husband. My gg-grandmother was the oldest and when she married she had her father's surname. First husband dies and she remarries, the 2 sons from the first marriage are still in the household and they all take on 2nd husband's surname. The sons marry with the second husband's surname. There is also a biological child(a girl) by the second husband. Second husband dies, ggg-grandma remarries and the girl child from husband #2 is still in the household so she winds up with the 3rd husband's surname.

If you haven't found a marriage to a McGee, then perhaps it was because of a similar situation like above?


Thanks for this. I guess I never thought about that. I just wish records had been better kept.
 

sheba2004

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Family lore says ours in made up our great grand was on the run.

I have the same situation, a name change with a great grandfather. His death certificate listed where he was born and his parents name but they had the new surname that he had. I didn't know if the parents names were changed too or made up. I don't even know for sure what happened and why the name change. I checked the county where he was born for a combination of him and his parents with and without that surname and nothing came up. Then I searched for just the parents without any surname and found 1 family with those first names. So I figured this was my family but didn't have proof to tie to them. Then finally I found a marriage record and found out he not only changed his surname, but his first name too! My great grandmother(his wife) has such a unique first name so I found the marriage record searching for her. LOL. But the family that I found was actually his parents and he was listed with them in one census. He actually stayed in that area for around 15 years until the Great Migration. I wish I could find out what happened.
 

Dogtown

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I was just wondering has anyone been able to?

Yes. My father hired a researcher who found the slave schedule with my 3xgreat-grandfather's name included (and his likely brother, who is the grandfather of a famous musician, making us cousins to that person). From that we know the owner's name. It turns out my great-grandfather (and my uncle and his son) is named after the master.

ETA: And no, the master was not his father. He was unambiguous and not (recently) mixed, although his son's (my 2xgreat-grandfather) wife was half-white, so the family has been light since they got married 120 years ago, but it was unambiguous before that time).
 

FLYJ0iNt73

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my last name has some origins in england nd a coat of arms.

my mothers maiden name has origins in england and ireland. i think the county she grew up in was named after an irish man.
 

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