Any English surnames that have died out in England but survive in America?

Question

Not too difficult to get some examples I would have thought - just a more demotic way of saying: "Any families where the male line died out in England but continued in America?"

Answer 1

It's a hard question to answer on several levels. The first is that unlike most of Europe, the Brits have had hereditary surnames for about 900 years. They spread far and wide and are extremely "settled" in their home country. The opposite are the French, Dutch and Scandinavians who haven't settled on hereditary surnames for more than 200 years. Many lines exist from the same parents, but with different surnames.

The other part is the idea that a family came en masse to the US and left no one behind. In Ireland I could see that. But Britain's a stretch.

The only line I know of where something similar happened is the case of a French Huguenot named Pierre Laverdure who married Priscilla Mallinson (take your version of the spelling, there are many). To assimilate into English society, he took her surname. They arrived in Acadia (modern day Nova Scotia) around 1657 when the land was English. Then the land was turned back to the French. Most of the English went south into the American colonies, but the Mallinsons stayed in Port Royal. Pierre still spoke French, so he lived easily among the Acadians. They adopted the French spelling of the surname, making it Melancon. After his death, Priscilla lived out the rest of her life in Boston (she didn't speak French well). But the sons stayed on in Acadia. They are the fathers of the three lines of Cajuns and French-Canadians named Melancon/Melanson/Malinson. It's the only case I know of an "English" line that abruptly ended in England and lived out in North America.

Answer 2

Probably, but finding them will be difficult.

Answer 3

the reason your question is not going anywhere, is that it is extremely broad.  Genealogists normally research their own individual ancestry, not surnames in general.  They have no reason to know what you are asking, since they have not researched ALL families and what happened to them.

Answer 4

That's a hard question to ask anyone, lol, even the best genealogist would have trouble with that one. !:-)

Answer 5

I am sure there are.

Answer 6

None that i know of.

The law of averages says it is more likely that some English (or Welsh, Irish, Cornish and Scottish) surnames that once existed in America have died out there.

This would be due to the intermixing with migrants from other parts of the world that began in the second half of the 19th Century in the USA.

Answer 7

My surname is Trevorrow. That must have died out in America.

Answer 8

Miller- they worked in mills for grain

Smith- they were a blacksmith

Hunt- PROBABLY were a hunter lol

there r many others cuz when ppl came from england and other countries, they thought their name didnt sound too 'american' so they tweaked it