Last name???????

Question

how do i find out where my ancestors came from? by my last name any FREE SITES

Answer 1

You could try the best free site on the Internet,

www.familysearch.org

it's excellent and completely free.

Answer 2

Adair and Wendy told you right.  Don't get overly involved in the origin of your name. Trace your ancestors those with the name and those without it.

Your ancestry pyramids as you go back. If you get back to 10 generations you can be directly descended from over a 1,000 people.  You get back to 20 generations and you can be directly descended from over 1,000,000 people.  I say "can" because there likely was intermarriage between cousins of varying degree as you go back.   In times past when transportation was by horse, horse and buggy or carriage,

many people did not get too far from their own small little town or village.  Their opportunity of meeting outsiders was very rare.  Most of the time all the people in the little town or village  were related somehow.

So your great great grandfather in one family line can be your great great great great grandfather in another family line.  

Anytime you wish to seriously trace your ancestry, there are lots of good people on this board that can give you some great tips and advice.  Just ask.

Answer 3

Just to stop you before you waste a bunch of time and energy.  Finding your actual ancestry is not done, by finding where your last name comes from.  Among many reasons.. names are NOT limited to one certain locality, and unless you actually trace your individual ancestors.. you won't know for certain if that last name is actually a variation of something else.

Yes.. there are places that you can look up the ancient (alleged) origin of a name.  And some of those, are not reputable.

Knowing your ANCESTRY is not the same thing.  To know your ancestry involves actually researching the persons. Some of it free.. some is not.  

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

One excellent encyclopedia of research sources, and more importantly.. HOW TO.. is cyndi's site.

Everything depends on how much you really want to have a quality  background/ tree. If you just want a couple sites to punch in your last name, and have it all "done".. you'll won't get much good info.

Answer 4

You cannot do genealogy by last names or tell what your family history is by last names. There are many reasons people end up with the last name they have and often it has nothing to do with the origins of the name. Perfect example is the slaves. They did not have surnames when they came here, and many times adopted the surnames of their owners........so now there are tens of thousands of slave descendants carrying around last names that have nothing to do with their heritage or where any of there ancestors came from. Other things, like occupation, is a source of last names as well. Smith came from someone who was a blacksmith......but was he a blacksmith in England, Germany, or Ireland? Some names came about by relationships, such as Johnson.  That name came about from someone who was the son of John.  Well how many people named John do you suppose had sons?  And many last names have multiple sources.........came from different countries at different times for different reasons. And, many names changed as people immigrated around the world. AND, your name only represents ONE line of your family tree (your father, his father, then his father, then his father.....) It does not take into account all the other lines of your family tree that do not share your name but ARE a part of who you are and where all your family came from.

Answer 5

ellisisland.org amazing