I have the genealogy of my surname back to the early 1800’s in Germany/Central Europe.
We also have documentation of my maternal grandmother’s surname back to 1681. The first person in our family with that name emigrated to the US colonies in 1722. His grandson fought in the American Revolution. Got courtmartialed too, when he, as a rabid Protestant, didn’t want to fight alongside the French Catholic auxiliaries brought over by Lafayette. The sentence got commuted later when they were desperate for soldiers.
My family name has a very unusual spelling which screams “ancient” and indeed, it was first recorded around 1550.
My extended family was locally prominent for several centuries (including painters, engravers and even a few burgomasters) and was granted a coat of arms. Actually, I discovered to my surprise a few years ago that my family name has its Wikipedia article. Lots of people of note with my name are mentioned in it (but not me - my branch of the family hasn’t really done anything noteworthy :o).
My family name means “warhammer” in Hebrew or Aramaic, and was the nickname of the Hasmonean family that defeated Antiochus, and reclaimed the Temple for Jewish observance c. 165 BCE, an act that is observed every year at the festival of Hanukkah.
I don’t think this means we’re descended from the Hasmomeans, though. For one thing, they were kohanim, and we are not, but I suspect that tough guys were frequently nicknamed “Maccaby.” There are a lot of really big men in my husband’s family, so if you had to travel outside the shtetl, you’d pick the biggest, strongest guy around for your traveling companion. That may be how his family came to be associated with Maccabees in the modern age.
We spell it “Maccaby.” I think that spelling first showed up in America.
My lastname is of the form Commonlastname from Place. There are at least 11 variants for 11 different places.
The first Parliament* roll calls from Navarre already list my foreparents in the 9th century. With variations in spelling and punctuation, you can follow the evolution from “Tom Smith, from Littleplace, representing the people of Littleplace” to “Tom Smith from Littleplace, from the township of Littleplace, for Littleplace”. There is a bit of back and forth between entries where the “from Littleplace” looks as part of the family name and others where it looks separate, but that’s got as much to do with changes in language (from Latin to Spanish) and punctuation than with what was the family called.
Don’t think of a modern Parliament; this was more along the lines of “the King has called up a big meeting” than “elected representatives wearing suits”.
There is no reason to make such an assumption, though. There are populations in which the numbers are that high, but it happens to be the highest number found in paternity studies to date.
When you say “family name”, you’re talking about a lot of people. If you mean just parental last names:
I’ve been able to trace my father’s surname to 1735 in Ahrenshagen, Gustrow, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, with the first immigrant arriving in America in 1842.
I’ve been able to trace my mother’s maiden name to about 1550 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England, with the first immigrant arriving in America in about 1643. While there are lineages showing the name going much further back, it’s impossible to verify.
It’s one of the oldest and most common surnames in the world, in use as a surname in some form since at least the 4th century BC; roughly translated it means “archer” or “bowyer.”
I have a feeling we’ve all misinterpreted the OP, but given the OP has started 65 threads against 68 total posts, it’s unlikely he knows that we all got it wrong, and is probably not coming back to clarify.
Mine is appears in writing in 12th century sources, but (a) it is far too common and (b) at the time it may have been still a patronymic that did not carry on through the generations.
I guess it depends on your definition of “family” then. I gave you the story of my family’s name, which was my husband’s name, and I know I am not descended from anyone with that name, because I married into it.
I also know that my maiden name is my father’s step-grandfather’s name, so the DNA truncates there as well, but it’s an open fact. My grandfather’s original father died when he was 5, and to all intents and purposes, his stepfather was his father, so he took his name. His mother had more children, and wanted all her children to have the same last name, and apparently my step-great-grandfather was a great guy who treated all the children the same.
The name starts showing up consistently for my great-great-great grandfather at the start of the 20th century. It’s the name of the tenant farm his grandfather worked for decades in the mid-19th century and was probably in use in the family from that time, but Norway was in a transition period where inherited surnames replaced true patronyms. Before that it was all patronyms, and since it was a tenant farm other farms as well.
I can follow the family names of my other grand-parents back up to 100-150 years further where the people either move from one farm to another or take up a proper surname instead of using patronyms.
OK, but neither of those cases involves your supposed-forefathers not matching the biological ones. The first one has to do with that custom your culture has of women changing name at marriage, the second one is by adoption. In neither case is there a mismatch between biological paternity and who was the registered father at the time of birth, which is what jtur88 was talking about. Big difference between marriage, adoption and cuckolding.
My great[sup]6[/sup]-grandfather’s first name was Christian. I know almost nothing about him except his name. His son Martin was born in 1728 in a German speaking border town inhabited by people with both German and Slavic surnames. My surname is almost certainly Slavic, but my ancestors spoke German as far back as I can trace and considered themselves to be Germans. The town was then called Falkenburg but it was in an area transferred to Polish control after WWII and the town is now called Złocieniec. Martin worked as a butcher and brewer. At least five generations of my ancestors worked as butchers and/or sausage makers in various towns in that region.
DNA analysis suggests my ancestors in the paternal line lived in Doggerland, an area that was dry land after the last ice age but which has since been flooded by the North Sea.
Partly because my 2 year old son has just become aware of how his name works and it’s interesting to see him process it. “Daddy has the same last name and first name as me. Different middle name. Mommy has those things too, but they’re all different.”
My surname is derived from a small hamlet in the Netherlands, close to the german border. The hamlet’s name translates semi-literally as “iron dune shrubbery”. The chief farm in the hamlet was known as “The farm of iron dune shrubbery”. It is from that farm that my surname is taken.
The hamlet is first mentioned in tax documents dating back to 800, which describe the places taken by Charlemagne after he defeated the Saxons at Bocholt.
The farm was held by many folks between 800 and 1600, but finally one man named Geert & his wife Geuken took it over with their son Jan in the mid 1600’s, and assumed the farm’s name as his own surname, and passed it down to his offspring. Everyone with my last name (and its multiple variations) is descended from Geert thru his son Jan.
My family name itself, or close variations, have been recorded in English documents as early as 1198. As for my family, I can go to a church graveyard near my home and account for a large percentage of my ancestors back to the 1850’s. A family member compiled a genealogy that goes back to about 1500.
What I want to know is which of those old cusses lost the castle that bears the family name?
My paternal great grandfather was an Irishman named Finnegan living in London. He married an English woman. In the late 1800s they moved to the US. Being Irish wasn’t exactly cool at that time, so he took his FIL’s complete name. I’m actually the 5th generation to have this exact same name. Ends with me, because all I had were daughters.