Family Names
The information you give on the origins of surnames is often incorrect. I see it comes from a book by an American who seems to assume that all British names come from Anglo Saxon roots never considering the possibility of origins in the Celtic languages. eg. one surname in my family is Beveridge. This originated from the Pictish place description "balfor" which in most of Scotland has mutated to the name Balfour but in Fife and ajacent areas has changed to Balfage and then Beveridge. The author claims is comes from an English/anglo-saxon word and then notes that the name is most commonly found in Fife, Scotland.
Another example is Moray. In spite of the existence of an Earldom of Moray in Scotland (once held by James Stewart, brother of Mary, Queen of Scots) an inlet called the Moray Firth and many other examples of the use of the name in Scotland we are told it comes from a Spanish word 'moral' and then informed that it occurs most frequently in Scotland (not Spain)
Your source for the origins of surnames is often ridiculously incorrect. I have found many other examples. If you are going to give out information please at least try to ensure it is correct and not from o source who seems to be totally clueless about names coming from languages less dominant than English or Spanish
Comments
-
I would just take no notice of these suggestions. The problem with providing correct definitions of surnames is hardly unique to FamilySearch (and the source it uses). Most surname dictionaries have incorrect or very limited definitions, which frequently do not fully address names that originated in other countries and / or have been anglicised. Serious genealogists would probably advise you to either to take all this with a pinch of salt, or, at the very least, to always consult more than one source.
2 -
Yes, the surname feature is not really helpful. If someone is interested they need to do complete research on it. Another thing I do not like is the limitation to just one spouse, the preferred spouse. I get that pedigree view requires you pick a spouse to indicate which lineage you want visible and that children are usually only interested in their blood line. I do not get that someone's autogenerated life history should exclude all spouses except the preferred spouse. It should include ALL spouses as they were all involved in that person's life. Finally, the mapping feature can be very wrong or very misleading. Old historic places names for countries that no longer exist get really mismanaged as well as counties and towns prior to the creation of their eventual state. I checked several ancestors to verify this. Place names in what became Kentucky but prior to statehood technically are Virginia sources. Sometimes it gets pinned correctly, other times the pin goes straight to Richmond instead of the historic Kentucky county. Not sure why. Same for my husband's Germans from Russia ancestors. The complete historic place name location gets pinned on Moscow because the town, province and country, Russian Empire, no longer exist. But because the word "Russia" is there, the pin jumps to Moscow.
0 -
Using FamilySearch (or any genealogy site or service) for onomastics (the study of names) is like doing your grocery shopping at the drugstore: it'll do in a pinch, but the results are unlikely to be fully satisfactory.
The etymology of the name Beveridge is interesting, but I can find no relationship between it and Balfour. Reaney & Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames, under the heading Beveridge, Bavridge lists instances from Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Huntingdonshire, Somerset, and Cornwall, and derives it from the old custom of a drink (beverage) that binds a bargain, saying "The nickname may well have been bestowed on a man who made a practice of getting free drinks for clinching bargains he had no intention of keeping. This custom of beverage was an old one on the continent where it was called vin du marché." It also says to see Belfrage, which is cited from Black's The Surnames of Scotland and explained as "A Scottish form of Beveridge, with intrusive l as in Calmeron for Cameron and Chalmers for Chambers. In Fife, the name also occurs as Berridge." Under Balfour, R&W derives the surname from the barony in Fife, but does not go into the etymology of the placename. (I do not happen to own any books that discuss Scottish placenames, unfortunately.)
2 -
"BRYSSE
Dutch (also Brussé): from French Brousse . This form of the surname is also found in France." (FamilySearch quote)
The surname Brysse (Briche in Picard French) is a patronym derived from the saint's name Brixtius, bishop of Tours.
In West-Flanders (Belgium) the -ysse- was pronounced and written -iche- in Picard (France).
pronunciation: bri:s_sə
0