Geneology - What's yours?

[Rex_Tremende]

Surnames I've plucked from the family tree so far include:

Abernathy; Barnett; Binckele / Binggeli / Binkley / Bynggeli; Blue; Bold; Booth; Brampton; Burri; Colvile; Copeland; Davis; Doodes; Fann; Flowers; Gerard; Griffith; Hamilton; Harrison; Haymes; Howard; Johnson; Kighley; Knowles; Langton; Leddy / Leedy; Manning; McCrary; McGregor; Montague; Moser; Newsom / Newsome; Pace; Payne; Petley; Philpot; Poindexter; Powell; Pugh; Radcliffe; Ramsay; Riley; Sheppard; Sherbourne; Sledd; Smith / Smyth; Southworth; Starks; Swearingen; Troumer; Tucker; Underwood; Waid; Washington; Weeks; Werle; West; Wilson; Worrell; Wylie; Zbinden / Zbindon;

Regards,
Rex.

[Cat]

I've got some MacKinnon (changed to McKinnon during immigration into Canada), as well as a bit of Stuart and MacDonald WAAAAYYY back in the day. I've also got French (surname Baril, supposedly fairly noble family a few hundred years ago. Also via Canada.), Italian (Sicilian no less!) and Spanish. I've heard that there is some Finnish in there too, but I haven't found anything in the past hundred years or so, so I'm not so sure about that. My main roadblock is my grandmother on my father's side, I can't find out anything about her parents. I keep meaning to call her one of these days and get their names.

When I was doing my research, I found it interesting how many Scots ended up in Quebec...you'd end up with children that had a Scottish surname and a French first name (on of my distant relatives is someone named Emil McKinnon), or vice-versa.

Now here's the kicker: my last name is Krakowski. I have no Polish in me and I wasn't adopted!!!*

*(It's actually pretty simple...my mother was adopted and she had me at the age of 17. She never married the tool, er, my father and her surname at the time was Krakowski. I never bothered taking the surname of either of her husbands, so the name stuck. Plus, my grandparents had a big hand in raising me at various times. Maybe one day I'll legally change it, but honestly, I have better things to spend money on and worry about. Having been around a Polish grandfather, who's still going strong at 78, I will NEVER turn down a pierogie or borscht though!!!)