How to trace the name Mackenzie?

Question

In Canada. I know that we are related to sveral famous Mackenzies including Alexander Mackenzie (cousin of someone) The Prime minister and several War verterans. My grandmothers name is Melanie House (nee Mackenzie) but I don't know any names past there

Answer 1

Don't trace the name. Trace your ancestors starting with yourself and working back.

Rootsweb(free site) has over 46,000 entries in family trees for Mackenzie.  Just pull up the site and put Mackenzie or a complete name in the Rootsweb block, and click.  Probe under World Connect.  Once you see the trees if you see somthing that interest you, probe on a name and it will take you to a screen that will give you the name and email address of the submitter.

Some submitters might not know a lot if the Mackenzie they have just happens to be someone who married into their family line, but some no doubt will know quite a bit.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in family trees on ANY website, free or paid. The info is subscriber submitted and mostly not documented or poorly documented.  Even when you see the same info repeatedly by many different subscribers that is no guarantee at all it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying. The information can be useful as CLUES as to where to find the documentation.

Also you can try their message boards. There probably is one for Mackenzie.  If you put an inquiry on Rootsweb, it will also be on the Ancestry.Com message boards.

Answer 2

This is what www.ancestry.com had to say about the name,

MacKenzie Name Meaning and History

Scottish: see McKenzie.

hope this helps.