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Dennis J Yancey

Surname Origins

 

Many people researching their family surname - often just kind of assume - there is just one surname origin for a given family name and that most people by that surname share a common ancestor or common link.

Actually that is far from the truth.

This is a good link n the subject

http://www.genealogyintime.com/NewsStories/2008/October/are_people_with_the_same_family_name_related.html

 

Name origin book and reports should be used with caution and with a grain of salt.

and they all so often merely group a bunch f similarly spelled names together and imply they must all be related and have the same common origin.

 

Trust you own research (of primary records that clearly belong to your specific branch) - much more than you trust some (often wild guess) in some name origin book.

 

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Dennis J Yancey

same thing applies to heraldry - where people assume (erroneously) that a given coat of arms is somehow connected to everyone with that surname.

when in acuality coat of arms - dont belong at all to a surname - they beong to a specific person and maybe father to oldest son lineage.