Question:

How do i find out where my family name is from?

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I stated searching my family name (Wilson) and I found the name is English, Irish, and Scottish. I started doing this cause I was bored but now I'm curious. Every site that I go to is trying to sell me something and not giving me much information unless I buy it. I know theres got to be a better and less expensive way.

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4 ANSWERS


  1. Thank goodness.  We are always trying to warn persons about those sites.

    Here's the real answer... Wilson is a common name, that is not necessarily limited to England, Ireland, Scotland.  So.. it is not reliable to focus on the "origin" of the name.. your Wilson ancestor is what really counts. Some names are more commonly linked to a specific country.. but that is not a rule.

    http://www.cyndislist.com/beginner.htm

    Here's my favorite place for genealogy resources. Not to mention that we can point you in the right direction to find your actual ancestors, and explicit (valid) records.  Don't forget mom... who isn't a Wilson by birth, but she is just as much part of you as dad is. Same for grandparents.. always use maiden names for research.

    My common advice is to search for your ancestors.. not surnames. You don't need all the Wilsons out there.. you need your dad's parents.. then their parents, and so on.

    I hope I can entice your curiosity a little more, to actually searching for your family. That is the only way to really know your origins.

    And never buy coffee mugs or family crests. They are rip offs.


  2. Surname: Wilson

    This distinguished surname, having more than seventy Coats of Arms, and with as many notable entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography" is of early medieval English origin although recorded throughout the British Isles. It is a patronymic form of the male given name Will, itself a diminutive of William. Introduced into England by William, Duke of Normandy, and known to history as "The Conqueror" , William soon became the most popular given name in England. The Norman form and that borne by the Conqueror, was "Willelm", a spelling adopted from the Frankish Empire of the 8th century. The name is a compound which originally consisted of the elements "wil", meaning desire, and "helm", a helmet which offered protection. Early examples of the surname recording in England include: Robertus Willelmi in the Domesday Book of 1086, whilst in 1341 Robert Wilson was recorded at Kirkstall, Yorkshire, the patronymic form of the name having emerged some seventeen years earlier (as below). One of the earliest emigrant to the New World was John Wilson, recorded on a register of "those living in Virginia on February 18th 1623". One of the most illustrious bearers of the name was Sir Robert Thomas Wilson, general and governor of Gibraltar, who in 1801 received the rank of baron of the Holy Roman Empire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Willeson. This was dated 1324, in records of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire. This was during the reign of King Edward 11nd of England, 1307 - 1327.

    Free database.

    http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?na...

  3. http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/defa...

    is a free page on the Ancestry site. It will tell you surname meanings and origins.

    Wilson is "Son of Will":

    English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from the personal name Will, a very common medieval short form of William.

    Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

    Wendy is right, but genealogy is research and most teens look upon it as too much work. The page above will satisfy 99% of the people under age 40.

    You can't watch the Super Bowl without seeing a beer commercial, and you can't do very much in Genealogy without running across an advertisement for a pay site. The ads will often ask you for a name and birth date, just like the site itself does. I teach a 2-hour introductory course to on-line genealogy resources once a month. Half the students who take it make that mistake, unless I can get to them in time to warn them

    There are 400,000 free sites devoted to genealogy on the Internet. If you want to delve further, poke through the resolved questions, or write to me via my profile.

  4. I like Ancestor too.

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