What is the earliest knowledge you have of your family name?

[table1349]

I never said it was unjustified, I said it is unfriendly, and it is. That's all.

No prob ... just the way forums are.

Wow, who would have ever thought that a forum would be like the real world?

They aren't.

 

[ClickAddict]

I think the question about the purpose of the post probably stems from someone using this forum a short while back to collect all the answers and post on some blog as an article. (AKA he was using the forum for research, without presenting it as so.) Can't recall all the details, but it was a little underhanded. Considering the OP has only 3 posts or so and are all unrelated to photography (I haven't read them, going by what others stated) it raises the question if he is doing the same.

 

[Piccell]

So? If you don't want to share information with the world, don't. But don't blame people for sharing (retweeting) what you share.
I don't see a problem.

 

[480sparky40 39]

So? If you don't want to share information with the world, don't. ............

Even if you don't, the Russians or Chinese will find it anyway and it will be posted on WikiLeaks.

 

[table1349]

So? If you don't want to share information with the world, don't. ............

Even if you don't, the Russians or Chinese will find it anyway and it will be posted on WikiLeaks.

Or recorded on a bus for all posterity.

 

[snowbear115 47]

But I own the copyright on my original posts . . .

 

[table1349]

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

 

[Piccell]

 

[limr30 3]

View attachment 128718

If this is in reaction to snowbear's post, then I find it quite ironic.

 

[Piccell]

What was snowbear's post? What did I miss?

 

[Fred von den Berg]

My family name, as it is personally connected to me, can be traced back to the nineteenth century and to the area in the north west of England near one of the two or three towns that bears the name: this town normally being regarded as the origin of the name.

However, the name, as it was then written, can be found in the Domesday Book and there was also a bearer of the name on the Mayflower, though no connection to my family has been established there.

 

[table1349]

I just checked my email, and I do have two more generations to research on the Scottish side of the family. The Irish side is well documented already. The German side has actually been the easiest to trace as the surname is a very unique one. I was even able to quickly find the spelling change back in the early 170o's that made it easier for english speakers.

All in all this has been a fun project and a fun collaboration with other family members that have added bits and pieces here and there.

 

[The_Traveler]

My last name appeared in the early 20's when the immigration officer could not spell my grandparents' original name and so gave them a new one fairly arbitrarily.

When I was younger I had a distinct Massachusetts accent and pronounced my name as if it were spelled Lawton. My lab partner, whose name was Lutostanski, liked the sound of it and changed his name to Lawton. I never knew that until we met at a professional meeting 15 years later (he was a Navy Captain at the time), I recognized him but not his name and he explained.

 

[zombiesniper114 13]

Reliable info back to the 1500's but some more sparse info back to early 1100's.

 

[snowbear115 47]

View attachment 128718

If this is in reaction to snowbear's post, then I find it quite ironic.

What was snowbear's post? What did I miss?

It's all good; I'm used to being overlooked!

As to the OP, I read, somewhere, that "Wrenn" is derived from an Old English word (before the 7th century) meaning "a small quick-moving person (I am neither) but it is definitely related to the "Wren" spelling. The name is English or Irish, depending on whom you ask. We don't know where our's came from; we've only been able to trace back to North Carolina and the 1860s.