What's in a Name?

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 15^th 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.