Can anyone guess the origin of some of my family surnames?

Question

My last name from my dad is Shultz. I've heard that it's a German name and that on his side I'm German/Dutch and people almost always spell it like this, Schultz (which I hate. lol). Is it true?

For my moms side I know that O'connor(er?) is Irish and that I'm part Irish from her side.

Her fathers name I can't figure out though, it's Miller. Does anyone know a possible origin?

Oh and how do I go about researching my dads side? We're on no talking levels with all of my relatives from his side because they're absolute a**h****. lol Because I'd really like to know where all of my family is from and I have no idea where to start because of that.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I would guess your grandmother was a Gypsy from Hungary, with flashing eyes and long, raven tresses. She married a Chinese sailor she met in Paris while telling fortunes with a crystal ball. Both families disapproved, so the couple came to America, changed their names at Ellis Island to throw the relatives off the track and settled in Beloit.  They opened a restaurant specializing in sweet and sour goulash.

That's a better guess than any other you've gotten so far, or at least a more colorful one.

Seriously, you shouldn't guess, and surnames are just clues. "Miller" is a common surname in every European language because every village had one. Many of them changed the spelling from whatever it was in German, Dutch, French, Bulgarian or whatever to the English "Miller" when they came to the USA. I have Mullers and Muellers who became Millers in my lines.

If your dad, his brothers and sisters and his parents your grandparents won't tell you anything, you'll have to buy a copy of his birth certificate, which should say his moter and father were "nn" years old and a native of {state} when he was born. That will give you a date range. You'll  then have to look for them somehow. Their marriage license application may have birth dates, birth places and parents' names.

If that doesn't work, you may have to wait until his parents die, and read their obituary or buy a copy of their death certificates.

Answer 2

welcome to genealogy.  Not to insult you.. but the word "guess" is non existent in genealogy.  The core concept is (1) to work from yourself back, and (2) without fail.. use records and documents.  

If you think about # 1, the reason is to prevent any possible errors.  For example.. trying to find the ORIGIN of a name is counter productive. If you work things correctly, it is always possible to find that one of your ancestors was adopted.  Gr Grandpa O'conner might really be an orphan whose parents were born in Poland. Out the window goes your Irish lineage. But, you won't know this, if you just accept something based on a surname.

What happens if you find that an ancestor was named Jones? If you attempted to "research" Jones, you would soon be bald. In fact.. you DON'T research Jones.  What you really research are records concerning grandmother Mary Jones, who married John Wheppersnapper in Iowa in 1895.  Immediately, your focus goes to finding the parents of Mary Jones. if you look at Mary in the 1900 census in Des Moines, and see a Jones family living next door.. that is probably your people.

Search ancestors.. not surnames. And don't tell the English teacher, but in genealogy, spelling is variable.. no right or wrong. It is the person and relationship that matters.

Assume your dad had no relatives living to talk to. His birth certificate has his parents names. If they are dead, then THEIR birth/death certs are records to use. Interviewing relatives can be a help.. but you still come back to using RECORDS.  

I'm sending you to

www.cyndislist.com   and you notice she has a whole section for beginners.  Please, browse there. The other thing about cyndis is that there are thousands of sites for genealogy. Please don't get in the rut of expecting all info on one website. It can be scattered all over (some isn't right anyway), and much of the real meaty stuff will not be online anyway.

You also can hang out here and get to know the regulars.  One or more will be ready to help. You may get 10 answers, ALL having info of value. We tend to work together, or most try to. The fun is seeing you succeed, not in the 10 pts.  

Answer 3

This isn't a guess:

Miller

English and Scottish: occupational name for a miller. The standard modern vocabulary word represents the northern Middle English term, an agent derivative of mille ‘mill’, reinforced by Old Norse mylnari (see Milner). In southern, western, and central England Millward (literally, ‘mill keeper’) was the usual term. The American surname has absorbed many cognate surnames from other European languages, for example French Meunier, Dumoulin, Demoulins, and Moulin; German Mueller; Dutch Molenaar; Italian Molinaro; Spanish Molinero; Hungarian Molnár; Slavic Mlinar, etc.

Southwestern and Swiss German and Jewish (Ashkenazic): variant of Müller (see Mueller).

Schultz:

German: status name for a village headman, from a contracted form of Middle High German schultheize. The term originally denoted a man responsible for collecting dues and paying them to the lord of the manor; it is a compound of sculd(a) ‘debt’, ‘due’ + a derivative of heiz(z)an ‘to command’. The surname is also established in Scandinavia.

Jewish (Ashkenazic): from German Schulze (see 1 above). The reason for adoption are uncertain, but may perhaps have referred to a rabbi, seen as the head of a Jewish community, or to a trustee of a synagogue.

Answer 4

Do a search on the web, everyone has a cousin that they haven't seen in years who has done some of the research already. in a search engine type in

(your last name)+genealogy

you can also try

(your last name)+family

Good Luck

Answer 5

Miller is an English surname and that name was given to the families who milled grains,(probably around 1000 years ago).

As for your dads German side of the family, find out what his parents names are and their dates of birth and where they were born. Then ask your dad if he knows where their parents(his grandparents) were born and what their names are. Write all this information down and then try go back further than your great grandparents by researching through interenet geneology sites such as the worldwide 'jesus christ of the latter day saints' genealogy website.