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When I asked my grandfather about the origins of our German-ish surname, he said we were Scots-Irish and came from West Virginia. I was 13, and just made a note for future research.
I'm now a genealogy researcher, and have long since dismissed my grandfather's version of our family origins. It's a German name, so how is it Scots-Irish? The earliest (known, so far) progenitor of the name came from Pennsylvania and the family ended up in Illinois with a stop in Ohio. So how does West Virginia even get in there?
I figured some other line--female line--probably married in, and THEY were Scots-Irish and from West Virginia, but it never has shown up in my research. So, Grandpa had just heard something that was wrong, that's all.
Until I found where in Ohio the "stopover" was. I had assumed northern Ohio, since that's what's between Pennsylvania and Illinois. Uh, no. Apparently my family was working its way down the Ohio River. There's a whole nest of my ancestors in Gallia County, Ohio, and they were from Clay Township, which, as far as I can tell from a map, might be literally a stone's throw (across the river) from West Virginia.
Grandpa wasn't very wrong. (I still haven't found any Scots-Irish, though.)
I'm now a genealogy researcher, and have long since dismissed my grandfather's version of our family origins. It's a German name, so how is it Scots-Irish? The earliest (known, so far) progenitor of the name came from Pennsylvania and the family ended up in Illinois with a stop in Ohio. So how does West Virginia even get in there?
I figured some other line--female line--probably married in, and THEY were Scots-Irish and from West Virginia, but it never has shown up in my research. So, Grandpa had just heard something that was wrong, that's all.
Until I found where in Ohio the "stopover" was. I had assumed northern Ohio, since that's what's between Pennsylvania and Illinois. Uh, no. Apparently my family was working its way down the Ohio River. There's a whole nest of my ancestors in Gallia County, Ohio, and they were from Clay Township, which, as far as I can tell from a map, might be literally a stone's throw (across the river) from West Virginia.
Grandpa wasn't very wrong. (I still haven't found any Scots-Irish, though.)
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It helped that my grandmother had quite a bit of family history and geneaology stuff already. I can follow her paternal line to the 15th Great Grandfather on the paternal line, and the 7th GreatGrandfather on hhe maternal line.
My husband's paternal line is pure German and I'm at a dead end on that, at his 2x Great Grandfather.}:/ It's as if they didn't exist before his Great Grandfather immigrated to here.
My father's birth father's paternal line I can follow back to my 5th Great Grandfather. His maternal line to my 3rd Great Grandfather. His birth mother's line, all the way back to the 9th Great Grandfather on the paternal side and 3rd Great Grandfather on the maternal line. His adoptive parents lines aren't much better. Heh.
Now, my birth mom's paternal line, well, I can follow them back all the way to 8th GreatGrandfather( LOTS of Pennocks, Gumaers, Spicers, Trowbridges, etc.) on the paternal line and only the 5th Great Grandfather on the maternal line.
For me, it helps that I have a cousin who's been doing this a lot longer than me and could give me alot of info, particularly about my dad's birth parents, since he'd already done the work.}:)