A real "WOW" moment...

[Bludongle]

Was sorting files after a move and gathered all the notes from family members I had accumulated over the years into one folder. Since they were in one place and I had previously posted concerning my mutt-like heritage I thought I would drop it into Ancestry.com.

I found that my uncle had done a great deal of research and that he had posted a great deal of information already.

The claim to the tartan I started this whole kilt wearing with was that I had a spunky little Scot of a great gramma Mimi who lived to be 107 years old and was surnamed MacCracken.

Well it seems I was mistaken.

The McCrackens (note the change in spelling) I sprang from are from a John Stuart McCracken who came over to the US from Down, Ireland sometime between 1817 and 1830.

So, at this point I can verify that I have definite Irish ancestry! WOO HOO!!!

As an interesting side note (at least to me with the name John Smith) I have a GGGgrandfather with the coolest of names... Hampton Boone Mccracken. Love the ring to that!

Now there are so many other lines to follow back I wonder what else I will find?

John

[BoldHighlander]

Have you been able to go back further on the MacCracken line yet? You might be surprised yet still

My own McReynolds I thought were Irish (Co. Tyrone) yet was able to go back further (1550's) to the Keppochs of Scotland where the name was MacRanald.

Another surprise was my Moore's & O'More's who were Co. Antrim Irish, only to learn that one of my O'More's (of that name) was born in 1500's Glasgow!
The trail (thus far) has dead-ended there, however I learned from surname/genealogy experts that unlike 'Mac' & 'Mc', which are interchangeable between Irish & Scots, "O" is wholly Irish. Interesting...

I have a friend in Australia (ex-pat' American) who is a MacCraken as well, & I think of the Irish line also. I'll have to see if she knows who her Irish ancestor(s) were, maybe your related?

[turpin]

If your MacCrackens are from Northern Ireland it's a good bet they are "Ulster Scots" and migrated there from Scotland. My Gordons spent about 90 years In County Down before emigrating to Virginia in 1738.

[Riverkilt]

Ahhh, the random rewards of genealogy - no wonder its soooo addictive!

What a great find.

[cessna152towser]

Yes indeed. Turpin's and Riverkilt's replies echo my own thoughts.
On Ulster Scots, my mother's family were Northern Irish Mewhorts. It is known that they were originally granted a plot of land near Lurgan in 1691 where a cottage was built which was in the family for over 200 years. The original Mewhort is believed to have been a McWhirt or McWhirter from Ayrshire Scotland who modified his name to blend in better with the native Irish. On my father's side, Cunningham, I am pure Scottish, though the surname is now very common in Northern Ireland where many Scots Cunninghams settled and in Ireland there are the towns of Manorcunningham and Newtowncunningham. Through Clan Cunningham I have met a few American based Cunninghams whose ancestors crossed the Atlantic from Ireland, no doubt if they could trace far enough back they would find an original Scottish ancestry.
Addictive, certainly, for every generation you go back the number of ancestry lines to research doubles!
Best of luck!

[longhuntr74]

My father came to my house for Easter and I convinced him to bring with him and hand over his binder of genealogical research that he did back in 1981/1982 and has scarcely touched since....I cannot wait to get on ancestry.com and start running some of his info to ground using the modern miracle of the internet! So far I know that my great great grandfather of my surname was born 13 Oct 1837 in Fermanagh Co. Ireland. His wife was born on 29 Jan 1843 in Edinburgh, Scotland. From what I see here, it appears that both individuals immigrated to Peterboro, Ontario, Canada where my Great grandfather was born before several of the family members eventually moved to upstate New York. Very interesting stuff.

My last name is very uncommon: Bavis...with possible variations being Beavis, Baevis....and I've seen several other French, English, and Irish derivations.

My great great grandmother (the one from Edinburgh, Scotland) was a "Trotter" born to a James Trotter and Agnes Weatherhead...but not much info about either of them except death dates and possible birth years/locations.

[Chas]

Hi Longhunter,

My first thought when I read your surname was that it was Welsh. The 'son of' prefix in Welsh is ap or ab. Two names come to mind, although there are hundreds more, Powell and Bevan. They were originally ap Owel and ab Evan. I can believe that your name started out as ab Avis.

Just a thought.

Regards

Chas

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

Through Clan Cunningham I have met a few American based Cunninghams whose ancestors crossed the Atlantic from Ireland

I had to convince an Irish gym instructor the other week that Cunningham is orginally a Scottish surname;

"Oh Cunningham, great Irish surname that one"...

well yes and no...ten minutes later, all explained.

[SteveB]

Aye, those clarks ca nae spell.

Standardization of spelling of names did not even start until the 1890s here in the U.S. As a few threads have demonstrated in the past it only takes a small body of water and a few years for the common language to mutate. Much of Northern Ireland was occupied by Scots for the benefit of the Gouvernment during various time periods.

My association with Clan Macneil is through the variations of M'Neeley, McNeilly, MacNeilly, MacNeily and MacNeil. All of these are the spellings of the surname of the same individual, as taken from the different record books. In doing a lot of research in Ireland, the name spelling variations continued through the 1950s. The Scots started getting on the spelling bus around 1900. Anything before was very random at best.

A large part of getting the spelling right is the increase in literacy of the general population. Most of the records were kept by the few who could read and write. The subject who's name was being recorded often had no clue what was being written, and was likely not to know the written form of his own name. Now with I.D. cards, motor operator's license, etc. the spelling has come to be somewhat standardised.

In many hours of research at the Scottish Genealogical Society's library in Edinburgh, I have found that the best way to understand what is written is to mentally say it out loud. The sounds are what the author would be trying to depict, not the shape of the letters. I find that while I may speak very strangely to the ear of someone of U.K. nativity, we both can interpret each other. the written word suffers equally. See colour vs color, favour vs favor, boot vs trunk, etc. Take that in written form over a long period of time, and the variations become intense.

Slainte.