is there anywhere you can find out your surname history or family history for free?

Question

i want to know where the surnames, Ryan, Shillingford, and Lawrence come from. Obviously there are more surnames in my families history lol. But im sure that the name Shillingford is Dominican and want to know if i am kind of distantly originated from there...?

thanks

Answer 1

Here you go:



Ryan Name Meaning and History

Irish: simplified form of Mulryan.

Irish: reduced form of O’Ryan, an Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Riagháin (modern Irish Ó Riain) ‘descendant of Rian’; Ó Maoilriain ‘descendant of Maoilriaghain’, or Ó Ruaidhín ‘descendant of the little red one’. Ryan is one of the commonest surnames in Ireland; there has been considerable confusion with Regan.

Americanized spelling of German Rein.





Lawrence Name Meaning and History

English: from the Middle English and Old French personal name Lorens, Laurence (Latin Laurentius ‘man from Laurentum’, a place in Italy probably named from its laurels or bay trees). The name was borne by a saint who was martyred at Rome in the 3rd century ad; he enjoyed a considerable cult throughout Europe, with consequent popularity of the personal name (French Laurent, Italian, Spanish Lorenzo, Catalan Llorenç, Portuguese Lourenço, German Laurenz; Polish Wawrzyniec (assimilated to the Polish word wawrzyn ‘laurel’), etc.). The surname is also borne by Jews among whom it is presumably an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Ashkenazic surnames.





Shillingford Name Meaning and History

English: habitational name from Shillingford in Oxfordshire, probably named with an Old English personal name Sciell(a) + Old English -inga- denoting ‘family or followers of’ + ford ‘ford’.

Answer 2

Surnames do not have a history. People with the surname do. When surnames were assigned or taken in Europe during the last millennium it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to wind up with a different surname and still each could have shared his surname with others with no known relationship. In England, for instance, most had one by the end of the 14th century. Still it was a couple of more centuries before the same surname was passed down to subsequent generations in many cases. The purpose of surnames were not to identify a man as a member of a family but for taxation purposes. Too many Toms, Fred, Homers and Henrys in the same town or village and they had to have a way of telling them apart.



Beware of surname product peddlers that sell scrolls for your surname or so called "family crest." There is no such thing as a family crest. A crest is part of a coat of arms. Coats of arms do not belong to surnames and in most countries, definitely in British countries, they belong to individuals not families. Businesses like that are scam merchants.



If you really want to find your family history, come back and ask a question how to go about it and believe me here on this board you will get a lot of helpful information. There are many people here that will be more than glad to help you, or you can just look at the resolved questions. However, in genealogy you don't trace your name. You trace your ancestors.



A name ending in "ford" will be English but that doesn't mean there aren't many people in the Dominican Republic named Shillingford.

Answer 3

The only way you'll see your family tree online is if one of your relatives has researched your lineage and posted the information to some website. If not, then you'll have to do the research yourself, using historical records to find clues about your ancestors and connecting one generation to the next. That's how people trace their lineage... and generally, they do it for their own family, or for individuals who have hired them to do the research. There aren't teams of professional genealogists out there researching random people's family trees and posting them online, not even for subscription sites like Ancestry. There are thousands of websites that have historical records that can be used for genealogy. Ancestry has the most, but there are others (some free, some not) that have smaller collections. If a record you need is only available on a pay site, it's still usually cheaper than having to travel to the location where the original record is held, to see it in person. Also, not all records are online, especially records from countries outside the U.S. Inevitably, you will need certain records that are only available at a library, archives or government agency, and it will cost you money to obtain it... either by ordering it through mail, or by taking a trip to that location. If you're serious about not paying even $1 for genealogical research, then you'll need to think of another hobby.

Answer 4

If you search the resolved questions for the word "free" - in this category only - you'll find 2500 other people asked the same question - "How can i find my family history for free?" There are thousands of links and tips there in the answers.