Surnames often have some meaning to them.
From Ireland there are a lot of "Mc" names. The "Mc" means "Son of." So that means somewhere in the family tree there was a man named "Ginty."
Robley is a Norwegian name. The old Norwegian tradition was also to include the name of the father. Knutson, Evenson, etc. would be examples of possible Norwegian surnames. Different from the Irish tradition there was a female version: Knutsdatter, Evensdatter, etc. If we still followed that tradition my last name would be Timothysdatter . . . quite a mouthful. :) Many of the Norwegians chose (or it was chosen for them) to use the name of the farm that they came from when they immigated to the United States. Robole (the 2nd "o" should have a strike through it) was the name of the farm that my ancestors came from and it was Americanized to Robley.
Lindsey . . . I am not sure on the exact origin of this name. Rick thought that the Lindseys were English but I have found that they are actually Irish. [Note: Don't let Rick tell you any different . . . unless his ancestors lied on the census they were born in Ireland :)] However there were a lot of Scottish in Ireland and it is likely that the name could have originated from there. I recently read that there were a lot of Lindsays (the spelling was changed over the years) in the counties of Down and Antrim who were of Scottish origin. Apparently they were from a great Scottish clan so Rick thinks that is cool.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hey Carey, thanks for the hair comment...how are things, how is your dad and Grandma and Papa? I wish I could have been there with everyone, I'm not sure when the next time I'll even be back is, now that my parents don't live there.
On another notes, I've been really enjoying your family blog, it's so awesome all the pictures you have access to. I'm doing my front room in my house as an Irish Pub style, so I want to put up a lot of these old family photos in it.
As per the "Mc" prefix, McGinty comes from the words Mac Fhinn Aechta, which means "Son of Fair Snow." In Co. Donegal, where the McGintys originate from, there is a river called the River Finn (Anglicized from the word Fhinn). This is most likely where we get our name, from the River Finn that went through Donegal. It was probably a play on words combining the name of the river and the idea of pure, white snow (which is more prominent in the northwest where Donegal is compared to the rest of the island).
Katie and I went to Co. Donegal and the River Finn, we went to some cemeteries filled with TONS of McGintys. Not sure who's related, no records that I know of share too much of where our Great Great Great Great Grandfather John actually came from, but most evidence leads to Co. Monoghan, simply because the surname of his wife, Sarah Ritchie was found along with McGintys in Co. Monoghan at the time they were there.
Anyway...interesting stuff...if you know more about the McGintys in Ireland please let me know, it has evaded me forever!
Talk to you soon!!!
Post a Comment