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I'm still not fully tracing my family background, but have just started getting into this. I was surprised when I did a Google search of my family name how much came up. For so long it was an odd name that I'd never seen before so I was shocked by how came up for the last name of Heckeroth.
The German references didn't surprise me so much as the California and very numerous Pennsylvania ones did. I had no idea the name was that common. I know just a few past relative names (grandparents, ggp's and aunts and uncles) so this will be interesting.
Anyone else get this surprise as a newbie? And did you work through it eventually?
Last edited by SeaDreams; 08-25-2011 at 01:01 AM..
Reason: Spelling
I've found likewise, that it can be amazing how much names have been used and how many people have had the same first and last names. And just about any word you can think of has been someone's last name somewhere, sometime.
Btw lots of Germans immigrated to PA in colonial times. William Penn advertised his colony in Germany and the Netherlands. You may find your ancestors go back quite far there.
My last name is Swedish in origin, and to me it's always been rare--just my family and my cousins' family--we were the only people I've ever encountered with the name. Oh, there's a pretty famous well-respected economist, but no one else seemingly on the planet.
When I started searching the family roots I discovered that in Minnesota about a third of the population there seem to have my last name, and in Sweden it seems like half the people do!
I'm still not fully tracing my family background, but have just started getting into this. I was surprised when I did a Google search of my family name how much came up. For so long it was an odd name that I'd never seen before so I was shocked by how came up for the last name of Heckeroth.
The German references didn't surprise me so much as the California and very numerous Pennsylvania ones did. I had no idea the name was that common. I know just a few past relative names (grandparents, ggp's and aunts and uncles) so this will be interesting.
Anyone else get this surprise as a newbie? And did you work through it eventually?
Yes, I sure did. In all my growing up years I had never met anyone else with my last name so I did think it was a rare one. Then when I started researching I found a boatload of them! If I had grown up in the southern states I would have surely met some but not out west. I have since found many out here as well though and they are ALL related to me in one way or another. I did meet people who 'sorta' had the same last name, just one letter off...an 'o' instead of an 'i'. They weren't related.
One of my aunts married a guy with a German last name and his family was originally from PA. They married into a family...in PA...that eventually married into MY family in KY. It surely WAS a "small world" back then.
SeaDreams, we could tell you lots of stories. When I started genealogy many years ago I thought it would be easy because I knew only a couple dozen with my last name. I soon found out the woods are full of us - all over the world. Something I will alert you to and I'm sure several others will too; All families had a habit of "recycling" first and middle names, and some time switching them around. It's a wonderful fulfilling hobby but it can get very frustrating. Have fun and stay balanced
Yes, I sure did. In all my growing up years I had never met anyone else with my last name so I did think it was a rare one. Then when I started researching I found a boatload of them! If I had grown up in the southern states I would have surely met some but not out west. I have since found many out here as well though and they are ALL related to me in one way or another. I did meet people who 'sorta' had the same last name, just one letter off...an 'o' instead of an 'i'. They weren't related.
One of my aunts married a guy with a German last name and his family was originally from PA. They married into a family...in PA...that eventually married into MY family in KY. It surely WAS a "small world" back then.
A lot of Germans from the Palatine region came through Pennsylvania to Virginia. One of my ggggggrandfathers lived in the same town in Virginia as a shared distant gggggrandfather of Elvis Presley and Tim McGraw.
I have found only one descendant (husbands) whose name I have not found anywhere else in u.s. census. They were a very small family, of Ukrainian/Polish descent. Unfortunately it was hard to research that name because it is normally mis-spelled. Took me years.
My spouses last name is very very common in Europe, not so much here. I am thinking a lot of uncommon names are like that, in Europe there are probably a ton of people with that last name.
A lot of Germans from the Palatine region came through Pennsylvania to Virginia. One of my ggggggrandfathers lived in the same town in Virginia as a shared distant gggggrandfather of Elvis Presley and Tim McGraw.
My maternal grandmother's family actually started out in New England, ended up in PA and then headed west, ending up in Western IL. They have an extensive history in PA though. Well, her maternal family started out in NE but her paternal family came to PA first and, somehow, they 'met up' there. No surprise that people are related all over the place or, at least, lived near one another.
I'm still not fully tracing my family background, but have just started getting into this. I was surprised when I did a Google search of my family name how much came up. For so long it was an odd name that I'd never seen before so I was shocked by how came up for the last name of Heckeroth.
The German references didn't surprise me so much as the California and very numerous Pennsylvania ones did. I had no idea the name was that common. I know just a few past relative names (grandparents, ggp's and aunts and uncles) so this will be interesting.
Anyone else get this surprise as a newbie? And did you work through it eventually?
Yes. I am just starting on my own ancestry search. I finally found my brothers and my sister after so many years being separated. (Long story, not in to telling it here, though.)
I found out my bio mom's maiden name and thought it was odd because I had never heard it before.
I then started looking on ancestry dot com to build up the family tree...holy cow! So many of them!!!! And the name branches to so many families! It's crazy! And it's all over in CA, GA, OK, AL, AR, FL, SC....it just goes on and on.
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