I need some etymology on my last name?

Question

My last name is Maestas father Adrian Maestas and grandfather Phil Maestas. I am doing a 3 page paper and I don't have enough information on my last name I need 2 more pages so if anyone knows where I can find a great ammount of information it would help a lot.

Answer 1

UK answer.

There is actually very little about the name, I found this little bit for you though.

Maestas Name Meaning and History

Hispanic: unexplained.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

justme gave you information related to the etymology of the surname.. it is not a lot.. but I would not expect there to BE a lot. All that means is the origin of a name.

I suspect what you would need, is information concerning your FAMILY, which is made up of individual persons, and the facts relating to their lives.  I located 2 men named Phillip Maestas in the social security death index.. and I have no way of knowing which one is yours. All that is included are the dates and places of birth/death, and places.

The NORMAL concept of genealogy is that it respects the rights of living persons.. thus, it is not realistic to expect information re your father (assuming he is alive) to be on the internet. This is a standard  that you find on most reputable genealogy sites. Until you get past Phillip, and find his ancestors.. we can't find that for you. It will be within your family, and whatever records they may have.

http://rwguide.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

Here is one of many guides on how to research your ancestry (the ssdi is free, via the home page of rootsweb).

In order to get 3 pages.. I think what you need is genealogy, which is about PERSONS, and not etymology, which due to the nature of what it is.. is going to be very limited.

edit-

if you can confirm the correct dates and place for your grandfather.. please.. repost with THAT INFO.  We have several posters who use ancestry.com, and would be pleased to do a quick search of that, for you.  It is a fee based site, but it does have info that you will not otherwise find.

Answer 3

You need to go to a genealogy library.

Answer 4

I believe Mestas to be the same name, just different spelling.

You can see an example on this site of how, in one case at least, it changed to Maestas

http://www.angelfire.com/nm/familygeneal...

Mestas    

Last name origin & meaning:

Spanish: habitational name from Las Mestas in Cáceres province, or Castilianized form of Asturian-Leonese Les Mestes, name of a town and several villages in Asturies, all named with the plural of mesta ‘common (sheep) pasture’ (from Latin mixtas, past participle (plural) of miscere ‘to mix’, ‘to mingle’).

And :

"I found out that our name did come from spain and it was because one of our ancestors married a french person. This happened in the time of the conquistadors and supposedly our name has evolved to maestas but use to be d'mestas

however this is just heresay".

http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.maes...

http://boards.ancestry.com/SearchResults...

Also

Teodora Mestas or Maestes New Mexico 1873

http://genforum.genealogy.com/mestas/