What is the earliest knowledge you have of your family name (German, search)

[zzd]

Just for fun

I know two of my grandparents were doctors in Ww2

[Tracysherm]

Not sure what you are asking.
I thought from your title you meant knowledge of the first people in my tree with my family surname.




WWII and grandparents is kind of recent.
Don't you know of anyone earlier than then with the same last name?

[johngolf]

My wife's family has traced one side of their family back to Prussian soldiers who were hired by England to fight in the Revolutionary War and refused to return to England. There was some anglo-saxoning (for lack of a better word) to the name after the war. Might well have been to hide/protect themselves.

[reed303]

My father's name has been traced to 1410 in Derbyshire, England. I have recently visited a 16th century home (Hall as they call it) there that is still owned by a descendant. 1st immigrant to the Virginia Colonies was in 1630.

[Tracysherm]

If the question is really about the earliest example we now of the family name....
In my case, my family last name came pretty recently. In Sweden they used to have the patronymic system. A guy named Olaf has a son named Henrick, so Henrick's last name is Olafsson. Olaf's daughter Anna would be Anna Olafsdotter. Henrick Olafsson's son Martin would be Martin Henrickson, Martin's son Jon would be Jon Martinson. Jon's daughter Katrina would be Katrina Jonsdotter, etc.


So in the late 1800s, I think the 1870s, Sweden passed a law that families had to pick a name and stick with it. My 3rd great grandfather had some other last name that was from the first name of his biological father, but he had been raised by his mother and stepfather. The stepfather's first name was Samuel, so my 3rd great grandfather and all his descendants took the same Samuelsson/Samuelson/Samuelsen.

[SunGrins]

I lose track of my paternal surname line around 1834 although there are family church records going back another 100 years. I just can't confirm my gr-grandfather's parents....yet. There were some spelling changes. This would be in Pomerania probably around the town of Leba on the Baltic. German then, Polish now -- some records were lost.

[Alandros]

My name is Matthew Langley and the furthest I trace my surname back is an Isham Langley Sr. (my 5x great grandfather) born around 1755. I'm not sure where he was born (probably Virginia, North Carolina, or South Carolina) though he likely died in Arkansas (after living in South Carolina for a period of time where my earliest records come from) probably around 1840-1850, likely at 85+.

I've been Y DNA tested (37 markers and Big Y) and I match the largest cluster of tested Langleys. Langleys that branched through North & South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, etc. The most likely immigration origin is England (though Ireland or France is a possibility too).

Some trees connect mine and other likely related Langleys back to a family of Norfolk Co., Virginia Langleys, the go back to a William Langley who arrived in Virginia somewhere before 1656, most sources assume from England.

I haven't found any evidence connecting my Isham back to the Norfolk Langleys though the many wills survive of the Norfolk Langleys and they seemed to create many descendant branches (so it could fit with the fact my Langley cluster is the largest).


My Y DNA and Big Y results gives me a bit more of a deeper ancestry view though. The Langley surname is most common in England, there are multiple regional places called Langley in which many people derived their surname from during the middle ages. In fact there's a Langley castle. The most likely answer is my Langleys came from one of those... DNA might have some very weak evidence for Langleys in this region of England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langley,_Berkshire

My Y DNA haplogroup sub-clade is R1b -> <skip a few steps> -> U152

Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) - Eupedia

That marker dates back about 4500 years ago and is not very common depending on the area of England. It's highest frequencies are in Southeast England at about 10-15%.

It's commonly called "Italo-Cletic" it's hot spots being in Northern Italy and found in moderate frequencies in surrounding areas of France, Germany, and Switzerland.

The most common haplogroup in England (and Ireland) is L21, a sibling branch. They are both part of hte parent S312 celtic haplogroups, with the L21 being what most "insular" celts come up as. L21 arrived in England and Ireland earlier and spread and U152 came sometime later... maybe through Gaul or Belgae peoples in the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age.

A lot of Y DNA progress is moving fast, I and other helped created some sub-branches a few steps down from U152 and those keep on branching. Probably around 600 years ago or so there's a "Kinman" surname branch that shares a common ancestry, possibly in that same region of England.

This is a Summary of U152/S28 on Eupedia

The Alpine Celts of the Hallstatt culture are associated with the S28 (a.k.a. U152) mutation, although not exclusively. The Italic branch (also S28/U152) is thought to have entered Italy in the 12th century BCE (see Villanova culture below), but there were certainly several succesive waves, as attested by the later arrival of the Cisalpine Celts from Gaul. The Belgae were another S28/U152 branch, an extension of the La Tène culture northward, following the Rhine, Moselle and Meuse rivers.

U152 is often associated with the Alpine and Continental Celts and is possibly my deep paternal ancestry (long before Langley became my branches name).


There are some amusing near-impossible connections of my surname. When Richard III DNA was tested and compared to modern Plantagenet males they found Richard III was G2, a pretty rare haplogroup in Western Europe. The modern descendants came up U152.

Richard III was the last Plantagenet King and a direct male descendant of Edmund of Langley fourth surviving son of King Edward III.

The break could either be in Richard III's ancestry or in the modern descendants. There has been a long speculated point that Richard III's grandfather, a Richard who was son of Edmund of Langley might not have been his father's son. He wasn't mentioned in either his father's or brothers wills, which was extremely odd. His mother was rumored to be having an affair.

Either way that obviously made me laugh a bit and wildly speculate (with no real belief behind it) that maybe there's a Langley bastard son of Edmund of Langley and that's my paternal ancestor.

Interestingly there's another possibly paternal Plantagenet link (again wild speculation, near impossible). Henry IV (aka Henry Bolingbroke) who was the son of John of Gaunt who was the third surviving son of Edward III, had a son Thomas Duke of Clarence, his second oldest son (his older brother being Henry V). Thomas had no legitimate children but did have a recognized bastard called Sir John... Often called the "Bastard of Clarence" in records or Sir John Clarence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas...ke_of_Clarence

His natural son John accompanied the remains of his father from Baugé to Canterbury for their interment. This Sir John Clarence had a grant of lands in Ireland from Henry V and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. The noble de Langlée family of France claimed him for their ultimate ancestor.

I haven't seen any concrete evidence that there's a french Langlée family descended from John, though there's at least one record that includes multiple generations, those can be seen in this immensely amazing site (for medieval genealogy)

Thomas, Duke of Clarence : Genealogics


In any case both offer fun speculations.

Unfortunately in digging about the Richard III testing, the modern possible Plantagenet males were indeed U152 but they tested negative for the most common sub-clades, one of which is L2 the one I test positive for.

Also it's far more likely my Langley ancestry in England is simply of the more common variety in regions where many Langleys existed. Fun to speculate of course

[in_newengland]

1763 is when my last paternal name disappears. The name goes way back but I have no clue as to who this man's father was. There are so many in the area named James ___________ and the church records were ruined.

1641 for my maternal side. I haven't been able to make the leap across the pond to England with this guy.

Both are my brick walls and still on my bucket list.

[brownbagg]

i trace my family name to 1649, then i took the dna test and found out, it wasnt my name, I am the bastard child.

[Mattks]

I haven't done a lot of research on my mothers side, but my fathers side goes back to the mid 1700s. Basically, my ancestor appears from nowhere and is fairly wealthy. Strangely enough his parents and wife are never mentioned by name. But we have lots of land deeds, bills of sale, land transfers, a family cemetery. But nothing that goes back farther. We believe they are a group of Quakers who separated and were likely shunned or something from a group in Pennsylvania. But a bunch of Quakers appeared in NW North Carolina. The person who I believe is his father had a son die with the same name in about the right time period. We have traced his roots back to the 1300's, but we aren't certain that is our family line or not. It's an educated guess though.

I have a different variation of the spelling, here is our coat of arms.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndall