Ties That Bind

ZILTCH, ZERO, ZIP….NO Z SURNAMES I’m sure I’m not the only one during this challenge that has no Z surnames. I must confess I do have one- but it’s a person who married into our family in the 1600s in … Continue reading →

Yes, we have no Y names either…. YIN YANG This, my 2nd last post in the A-Z Challenge is going to be about YIN YANG. (and it’s never Yin AND Yang, by the way, as the words are supposed … Continue reading →

No surprise we have no X surnames…. What starts with X? Well…sounds like X? EX-SPOUSES I’ve been pretty lucky with this one. We really don’t have any ex-spouses in our tree believe it or not! We have some spouses who just … Continue reading →

WILLIAMS Alban Williams (birth/death date unknown) Alban Williams married Flora Louise Macdonald in St. Andrew’s Church, on Rodney Street, in Liverpool, on August 22nd, 1854. It was a good match as far as her father was concerned. He made an … Continue reading →

No V Surname either! So let’s talk about taking a vacation. Yes, a vacation! Who hasn’t dreamed of travelling to their ancestral home? For me it was Italy and the fact that I still have relatives who live there. Since … Continue reading →

There is no U surname in my tree…. Therefore, I will do what I did for the O surname that I don’t have either. I’m going to talk about UNDERSTANDING SOMETIMES INFORMATION CAN”T BE FOUND. This is a hard … Continue reading →

T for TONUS TONUS is the surname of my paternal grandmother Maria TONUS. She was born in 1912 and died in 2007. She came from a very large family with 12 children. Longevity runs in the family as she was … Continue reading →

S as in SPEED SPEED FAMILY OF FIFE In a previous post I’d mentioned that my husband’s grandmother was the one who got me hooked on genealogy. Her maiden name was SPEED. Her father William Marshall SPEED was killed in … Continue reading →

R as in RODGER Our Rodger family connection starts with Margaret RODGER born in 1813 who married James MATTHEW on the 14th of June, 1835 in Longforgan, Perthshire, Scotland. When Margaret married James he was listed as a ploughman in … Continue reading →

Q! Not many have a surname starting with Q. We are one of them! So I will talk about our ancestor John QUARTZ Moore. What a cool middle name! It has to be a surname because I’ve never, ever heard … Continue reading →

P for PAGOTTO My maiden name is PAGOTTO…. My father was Luigi PAGOTTO born August 23, 1933 in Azzano Decimo, Pordenone, Italy. I spent the better part of my childhood wishing I had a different last name. Growing up as a … Continue reading →

Oh Oh! No O’s!!! With over 1,000 people in my family tree I have NO “O” surnames!! So on that note….I’ve decided to talk about something that starts with O that is very important for any family historian … Continue reading →

NORMAND As a surname of English, Irish (in Ulster), Scottish and Dutch origin the name was used to denote someone of Scandinavian ancestry or someone from Normandy (northern France). During the Dark Ages Scandinavian Vikings called themselves norðmenn (“men from … Continue reading →

MACDONALD OF BOISDALE Where do I start? In the early 90s, I received a birth certificate of an ancestor that would change my life. John Henry Cornelius BOISDALE HENDER MOFFATT was my husband’s great grandfather. He was born in 1875 … Continue reading →

LEONARD LEONARD is a surname that married into our family. One of Hugh Macdonald IV of Boisdale’s daughters, Georgina, married John Charles Leonard on February 28th, 1862 in Liverpool. A little back history on the Macdonald family, Hugh IV was … Continue reading →

Kinnaird or Kinnear John Kinnaird married Betty (or Bessie) Nickle (or Nicholl, Nichol) on September 26th, 1748 in Leslie, Fife, Scotland. The only 2 children I can find for this couple are John Kinnaird born in 1749 and Margaret Kinnaird … Continue reading →

“J” for JUGALI ! How’s that for a weird surname?! Since I only have two J surnames and one of them is JONES from a woman who married a brother in our line, I chose the other surname for two … Continue reading →

I- IRELAND This is the one and ONLY “I” surname in my whole family tree. Helen IRELAND married John Normand in Strathmiglo, Fife on June 20, 1791. She was sometimes referred to as Helen NORMAND which threw me for … Continue reading →

H as in HENDER Mary Hender was born in Warbstow, Cornwall in 1805 to Joseph Hender, a cordwainer (shoemaker) and Philadelphia Lander. The HENDER surname is a regional surname found mostly in Cornwall and some parts of Devon. This is … Continue reading →

GON Yup, that’s a surname! My mother’s maiden name. In China, that’s like the surname Smith but we are Italian….go figure. I always got a kick out of receiving Chinese junk mail when I was growing up. I even did … Continue reading →