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Hello Tiffany,
In the FERGUSON DNA Project we have observed that a significant number of FERGUSON have Viking ancestry. Around 1895 Dr. R.M. Ferguson of Edinburgh wrote:
"Is there no probability that our name may also be Scandinavian? I was in Copenhagen many years ago, and passing through one of the cemeteries I was struck with the names on the tombstones. Every Scotch name ending in son had a similiar name in sen. One name was very common -- Börgeson. The B stroked, I was told sounded like F, and the o modified as in German. When pronounced it sounded almost identical with our name. Should we not therefore search for our name among the Vikings instead of among the wilds of Balquidder and Athole?".
That Børgesen would be end up as Ferguson in the US seems logical enough. The name Børgesen, like Ferguson, is classed as a patronymic surname. The use of patronymics continued in Denmark, especially among the peasant class, until about the 1850s. As Rockne Johnson explains "my thrice-great grandfather Claus Børgesen 1744-1829 was named such because his father was Børge Jacobsen. My great-great-grandfather, son of Claus, was Christen Clausen. Surnames were a foreign concept".
Chances are then that your Peter FERGUSON was the son of someone named Børge.
Do you know of any living male FERGUSON of your line? It would be fun to see how their DNA compares with both Ferguson and the larger class of Danish patronymic surnames.
You may find us on the web at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~colin/Ferguson/DNA/
Cheers,
Colin Ferguson
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