My Grandfather was not so wrong

[dragonfly]

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.)

Comments

[blueswan]

I really enjoy your genealogy posts. It's nice to see someone who considers it interesting and worth the time and effort it takes.

My favourite part is finding the names of the women who married into the family and giving them back their identity. Have you run into the old German saints naming tradition? I thought a past researcher had muddled things up royally until I got my research hat on and looked into it more closely.

I've been dabbling at it for years and last year dug in and got more into it. I've been lucky to have both sides of the family searched by others, though I was able to add my father's branch back to the main tree. For some reason (I suspect something quite scandalous) they had disappeared altogether for generations. I've been researching both my grandmothers' families as well.

It's all very interesting and I spend hours researching the history and culture of the places various ancestors have lived.