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"Smith" is not only an occupation, and a family name it is also the English spelling of the Dutch name Smit. In my family, the English spelling was not adopted until the 1800s even though the ancestor arrived in the colonies in the 1600s.
I should add so is Conover, Longstreet, Peek, Lane and Goey.
Among my ancestors who left the U.S. was a Jacob Banta and his wife Rachel Smit, both from Dutch famlies long in the New World. They came to Canada with their minor children, but their adult children and their spouses came as well. And they are by now a virtual tribe.
I can only assume that Rachel must have been much loved and respected as the name Smith has been used repeatedly as a middle name throughout the now huge Bonter clan, usually by several individuals in every generation down into the 20th century. For over two hundred years now they have preserved her surname in the family. Quite an enduring tradition to have sprung from one lady.
Irish families named Smith or Smythe, when not descendents of English settlers, are native famiiies whose names were orignally Gabha, Mac an Gabhann or Ó Gabhann.
Gabha means smith, Gabhann is the possessive/genitive form of the noun used when it is combined with Mac or UÃ/Ó. Sometimes Gow was used in English for the former, and Gowan for the latter as these names sound close the original Irish language names.
But in the 19th century surge of enforcing the use of English, the direct translation became common too.
My family was not ever Schmidt to my knowledge. They were in the Nederlands in the 1600s before they came to New Amersterdam. It was grandson who first used the Smith spelling. .
You'll also find Scandinavian-Americans with the last name Smith, as it's the English translation of Smed.
I agree. My great grandfather was a Smith and was born in Norway. This was news to me, since I always thought that side of the family was English.
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