Searching for the right surname and its origin in remote past ‎
 

Once upon a time, surnames were the most unused part of name, and people often used to ‎be known by their first names only. That is why, some common names are found ‎profusely in directory like telephone book, for example Smith, Brown, etc. ‎

Immediately after that phase, the names were written with the tribal or provincial ‎specification like James of York, Apache the Tribe, etc. to distinguish a person. However, ‎the second word written with the name was prevalently not a name but a kind of ‎provincial affiliation. This kind of additions with names was more like a designation, ‎social status, or title of destination of his origin.‎

There are some abrupt differences between the style of using the designation between ‎Europeans, American, and Indians. While Europeans prefer to fix the place-name with the ‎name as their title, Indians or Indian- American tribes used to connect the talent or ‎performance with the names to denote the gallantry status of the person in society. For ‎example James the warrior, denotes the power of a man, James. Gradually the surname ‎used to be introduced as the emblem of community or as the symbol of profession. ‎Today’s Smiths were mostly originated from Blacksmiths, whose profession provided ‎him the said social title, which got converted in family surname in course of time.‎

From the middle of 1960, when slavery was banned worldwide, former slaves were ‎named as per the title after their choice or they were given the title on their previous ‎owners. In fact, if we evaluate surnames chronologically, it may go back for more than ‎‎100 years back.‎


Websites like roots.com and Ancestry.com, are all about searching names, there are more ‎than five hundred billion names already recorded in the database. If we view them ‎minutely we might be able to track the origin of the families in the past. While we analyze ‎the names it becomes clearly evident that all Smiths are coming from one family and all ‎Browns belonged to one old Brown community in old days. ‎

This factor is being more emphatically supported by DNA knowledge. There are different ‎ongoing projects where the interested persons can participate at free of cost. These ‎projects’ sole motive is extending the database of surnames on and on and contributing ‎more for the facility of genealogical research.‎
While we look for the relatives by surname, it signifies the extension of genealogical ‎searches and it often helps to find out new matches as well as to make provision for ‎adding new branches in the family tree. This searching gets more methodical and ‎authentic when gets supported by cemetery research method.‎


However, DNA test can sort the lineage of your distant relatives even when they are ‎resident of different countries. Due to advancement of technology online kits for this test ‎are all available and with the help of these tests, single origin of the all similar surnames ‎can easily be established. The latest method of testing can prove the social relation ‎between the relatives in their origin in past with more genuine explanations and references ‎to their mutual hereditary matches, irrespective of their present living status. ‎

Again there is another option for genealogical searching with the help of surname, it is the ‎checking procedure with the help of symbols, coats of arms and crests. Here an old ‎ancestral property might have been converted into a family pride symbol, generation after ‎generation as has been converted to an emblem of the family.‎

This family symbol /crest/emblem can be searched by online method which we may try in ‎case we opt searching for a name. There are many sites where the symbols are ‎predominantly found. These sites can easily be searched out by a simple key word search ‎‎“heraldry”, “mottos”, or “clans”. As every nation, ethnic group, religious community ‎possess their own flags as a symbol of their individuality, so are the families who use to ‎bear the same for the family tradition or culture.‎
Now if you ever wish to find your roots you can follow the methodology we have ‎described here.‎