Greetings all, 21 November, 4:31pmMST


I have wondered a lot about common names associated with a person's trade. Tailor, Smith, Weaver, Gardner, Warden, Cooper, etc. Insofar as these names can be found amongs Scots, I have to believe that the other European equivalents of these same names are to be found on the Continent.

Schmidt=Smith, etc. It has already been pointed out that the Scottish Taylors were probably of French Norman origin, as with many of the non-Gaelic Scots names. There were a lot of Normans who came to Britain with the Conqueror and stayed. But I digress.....

A lot of Continental European immigrants who went to English speaking countries, Anglicized thir family names in the spirit of assimilation. So a 25th generation village blacksmith in Bavaria, may have got the hell out at some cataclysmic point, and finding himself and wee bit of baggage in England; went from Heinrich Schmidt to Henry Smith.

Fide et Fortitudine, aye!

T.