Appalachian and Southern Surnames, #55

[Music] welcome to episode 55 in our series on the surnames of Appalachia and the American South I just returned from a journey to Switzerland Italy and France so I'm still adjusting to the trip if I seem a little Dazed and Confused I hope you can blame it on jet lag on today's show we'll investigate the origins and meanings of eight Appalachian and Southern family names our search will take us to England Scotland Ireland France Scandinavia and Germany it promises to be a good show so I hope you'll join me let's get started number one Harlan Harlan with the D as well if you have an interest at Appalachia there's little doubt that you've heard of Harlan County Kentucky because of Labor strife and other clan-like behaviors that involves violence Harlan County has been called bloody Harlan uh you may have also heard of Harlan County from the FX Network TV show Justified that aired from 2010 to 2015. it's considered to be a deal Western although it sent Southeastern Kentucky I don't know how it could be a western anyway the surname originated in North Yorkshire England where it identified a person who is living on a land that had more than a few hairs or Peter rabbits if you know what I mean these days it's a rare name in that part of Great Britain the surname is found in Northern Ireland where Harlan and wolf Builders constructed ships for the White Star Line and other companies including the White Star Alliance ill-fated Titanic at the end of the day I think we're safe in calling Harlan or harlund an English surname number two Buffington the surname Buffington has a great deal of meaning to those of us who descend from John Joseph van Agnes Rutherford or walleye in either of his sons John or James James was a plantation owner and chief among the Cherokee of North Georgia and Southeastern Tennessee on February 19 1809 James and his favorite son Joseph who was only about nine years old at the time were visiting buffington's Tavern for his dad's few drinks of libation quite the Drinker they say it was dark outside so when the door slightly open no one was surprised and fully expected someone to step inside but that didn't happen instead of a foot entering the threshold the gun was pointed through the open space and fired into James Van killing him in front of his nine-year-old son wow at any rate the surname Buffington is an English surname which is an alternate form of bovington It's a combination of a person named BofA and t-o-n or ton for a farm Village neither spelling appears among the traditional surnames of any country outside of England so by default Buffington is an Americanized form of the English bovington number three Shields well folks I'm old enough to remember when Brooke Shields made mine and most of my male friends hearts melt Brooks six foot frame and her beauty are impressive to say the least in that regards she kind of reminds me of Mary Queen of Scots her surname can be either English or Irish and Northumberland England there was a habitational place called North Shields there was also a South Shields in Durham which is just south of Northumberland these parts of England were heavily settled by angles Danes and some Norwegian Vikings in Ireland the Gaelic was anglicized as Shields so at the end of the day I think you need a paper trail to determine whether your ancestors came from Ireland or England if you've done a y chromosome DNA test and your haplogroup is i1 m253 it throws more weight on the probability of a Viking English origin although there were Vikings also in Ireland assuming no hanky Peggy the old family tree of course number four Grant aside from the tall drink of water who was named Ginger Grant and who suffered through three years on Gilligan's Island poor thing the first grant to pop into my mind is Ulysses S Grant the former president in Civil War General was born just across the Ohio River from Kentucky in Point Pleasant Ohio the surname was introduced into Scotland in the 13th century Grant was originally a Norman surname but by now it's fully included among other Scottish names that were likewise introduced by the Normans such as Bruce and so on Grahams according to George Frazier black Grant is a Highland surname which is a bit odd because the Normans mostly became landed farmers in the lowlands in addition to Scotland Grant is found in nearly all the provinces of Ireland it's best represented in Munster and it's least represented in Koenig in the surnames of Ireland the classic calls Grant a Scottish surname so take that for what it's worth unless your ancestor came from Ulster you would not be a Scots Irish descent that was a plantation era community in Ulster and there were people like Fritz huguenots who also became acclimated and associated with that particular Community as well number five Emery Emery or Emory these forms of are variants of an old Teutonic amoric or almeric a form of it is also found in Italy as Americo you might recognize that name as belonging to the 15th century 15th to 16th century cartographer named Amerigo Vespucci America is named after him in recognition of his detailed maps of Western Atlantic land masses nevertheless the surname Emory and its related forms are found in England and Ireland so a paper trail would be needed to determine the origin of your line of Emory number six Latrell or Luttrell folks one of the best post-vietnam ERA movies about war that I have seen is Lone Survivor which is based on the disastrous events that befell a team of Navy Seals in Operation Red Wing back in 2005 in the mountains of Afghanistan since the title is a spoiler I can tell you that there was only one person who survived the operation and his name was Marcus Latrell a hooking fellow from Texas also I must point out that there's a town in Union County East Tennessee not too far from my house that spelled the same way but we pronounce it lateral we Southern Appalachian folk have a way of making some syllables sound like all you can hear that and how we pronounced Knoxville and Asheville we say Knoxville and Ash Farm the surname originated in old French as the otter like Shields discussed a few minutes ago Electro can be either Irish or English it's been in the Dublin area a region called The Pale since the 13th century that's quite a long time at the end of the day I think you'll need a paper trail to determine the origin of your line of lateral or lateral number seven Archer as one might reasonably guess the surname Archer arrived in the Isles with Norman soldiers in 1066 it was given to at least one man who specialized in being a bow man right now I'm having sort of flashbacks to the movie Braveheart when the commander of the English forces called out archers to soften up the Scottish resistance by the way if anyone knows the origin of bows and arrows I would love to know about that topic Native Americans certainly used them and they were using them when they met settlers from the East it would seem to me that the technology must have been around and shared before our deepest common ancestor separated from each other on the Asian step like Latrell Archer has been in England and Ireland for a millennium that fact alone tells me that you will need a paper trail to determine the origin of your line of Archer number eight heirs or heirs occasionally someone requests a surname that's found in my own family tree this is certainly the case with heirs Philadelphia e airs was one of my fourth great grandparents on my mom's side of the family tree of course right off the bat I need to point out that the established family name Eyre in Ireland is distinct from these spellings these spellings appear in the Scottish records back as far as 1281. it was sometimes spelled air early on in its existence written exist as that is since it appears among medieval Airship records there is a connection gotta be between the surname and the southwest of Scotland however I'm not sure which came first the people or the place that people were like the bruises and the grants originally Norman's and could have been given the name because they were Heirs h-e-i-r-s of some sort it's stifled that it was given to someone who was full of hot air being a Norman name it's also found in England but I think it's more associated with Scotland and the region of Ayrshire a highly fertile Farm region in the Southwest as I mentioned earlier the Normans were attracted to farm opportunities in the Scottish lowlands well folks that's all I have for you today I hope you enjoyed it if you did please like share and subscribe the channel if the man wants it I'll be back soon with episode 56 of our series on the surnames of Appalachia and the America South until then may the good Lord smile on you and yours bye-bye [Music]

Channel: The Vanntage Point

Views: 2,108

Keywords: Ireland, England, United Kingdom, Scotland, Germany, genetic genealogy, France, Switzerland, Family Trees

Id: 1RUgRoWpqUw

Length: 10min 43sec (643 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023