How
important to you is your family name or surname? The name itself
shouldn't be very important but somehow I'm finding out that it is.
If you had been a Smith all your life and suddenly discovered that
you were really a Jones, how would you feel?
I was
born a Pierce but was adopted early on by my mother's second husband
and my surname became Alexander. Having lived as an Alexander
practically all my life, I'm kind of proud of that name. Being a
genealogist, I'm also proud of my ancestors who bore that name.
Family
or surnames didn't come into use until about the 15th
century in Europe. Prior to that time, people were just known by a
single name. For instance, Vlad the Impaler was known only by Vlad.
Of course, we all know about Attila also. As surnames began to be
used, the name was often derived from the person's work or from where
he lived. The most common example is the town blacksmith, who when
he took a family name, usually became Smith.
Back
to my story about the Alexanders. Over the past fifteen years I have
done a lot of genealogy on our Alexander family. In fact, I had
traced the lineage back to colonial times in Cecil County, Maryland.
I'm reasonably sure that our family is descended from the Alexanders
who migrated from Scotland to Ireland, then across the Atlantic to
the colonies. After years of studying the family, I've grown very
fond of my ancestors and their exploits.
DNA
testing has become very popular in the past few years in genealogy.
This testing helps find cousins you weren't aware of, confirm family
lines that you've developed and give you some background on your
roots. In the past five years, I've had a lot of DNA testing done
and it has all been informative and rewarding. One thing I had not
done, however, is any yDNA testing on the Alexander side of the
family. yDNA testing follows only the male side of your family and
should remain in sync with your family surname.
In
order to do yDNA testing on the Alexander line, I had to enlist my
brother, Milt, who was a direct descendant of Tommy Alexander and his
father, Milton Walker (Cap) Alexander. We sent the test off in May,
2015, and just got the results back. Lo and behold, there was not a
single match with the Alexander surname! Out of fifteen matches, ten
of them were with people named something else. There were a couple of others
who didn't match Alexanders either.
This
is what the experts call a non paternity event (NPE). It could have
been a child born out of wedlock, infidelity in a marriage, a child
taking the mother's maiden name, an adoption or any of several other
things. The evidence is pretty conclusive that our surname should
have been something besides Alexander. The problem is that we don't know how or when this
might have occurred.
I must
tell you that I am very bummed about this turn of events. It's kind
of like finding out that you aren't really who you thought you were.
On the other hand, it does provide me fodder for continued genealogy,
probably for several years!
I've purposely not revealed the surname which came up. I want to do some more study before I tell what it is.
