Origin of armstrong family?

Question

Origin of armstrong family?

Answer 1

The Armstrong clan is a very large one.  Most of us claim to be descendants of Johnny Armstrong who was either a Robin Hood or an Al Capone depending on what side of the story you are on.  He lived in the Borders area of Scotland in the early 1500's.

I can trace my Armstrong line back to 1692 but I have yet to find a link to Johnny Armstrong.  After hearing the name since I was a child, I was thrilled when I discovered that he actually existed.

The Clan motto is: Invictus maneo (I remain unvanquished).

Answer 2

There is probably more than one Armstrong family.  Also, a person would have had to research your family to know the origin.  Not everyone with the same surname is related or shares ancestors.

See the link below from the most prestigious genealogical organization in the U.S., The National Genealogical Society.

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp...

There is a free site, Rootsweb.Com, that has family trees under World Connect.  You can pull it up and put Armstrong in the Rootsweb block.  If you see something 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.

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. Even when you see the same info repeatedly by many different subscribers  on the same people, that is no guarantee it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.

Answer 3

Scottish

at least one individual with that name has a coat of arms on file at houseofnames.com

There is also an intriguing motto on the crest

Answer 4

About 4,000 people across Northern Europe and the British Isles with no relation to each other and, guess what? Stong Arms!!

It is like the surname "Brown", which meant the fellow had brown hair, or "Carpenter", which meant that is what he did for a living, or "Peterson", which meant that was his dad. There are thousands of families with that surname. They are not related to each other.

Answer 5

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

ARMSTRONG Name Meaning and History

English (common in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders): Middle English nickname for someone who was strong in the arm.

Irish: adopted as an English equivalent of Gaelic Ó Labhradha Tréan ‘strong O’Lavery’ or Mac Thréinfhir, literally ‘son of the strong man’, both from Ulster.

hope this helps.