Re: Farrow DNA project needs help
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In reply to:
Re: Farrow DNA project needs help
Lisa Kuyk 9/13/09
Yes, there are Farrows and there are Farrars, each has their own origin and DNA.
Farrow is an English occupational name, and in 1881 it was concentrated mainly on the East Coast of England where it bulges into the North Sea.What the Romans called the Saxon coast.
Farrar is a locational name, found mainly in the environs of Yorkshire (the midlands from Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, etc).
Your Farrow ancestor from England is more than likely just that a Farrow, and at some point the name's spelling was stablized as Farrar.
There is a website, http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/ I just tried to access it but it is busy or something. It's English and it shows the distribution of surnames in the British Isles for two census years 1881 and 1998.Keep trying but check the box 1881 when you do.
The Brits are not as mobile as Americans, and the further back in time, the less mobile.The Farrar's were rather mobile since they were wealthy and landed gentry, however the laborers weren't, they walked everywhere and were more or less tied to the land unless they had a trade or skill they could market in large cities like York and London.
But not all Farrar's were "gentry", marriage licenses of London in the 16th Century show the occupations of applications and a couple of Farrar's were haberdashers, one was a cordwainer and one was a skinner.My ancestor William Farrar who married Sissley Kelke is in there, and his ancestry is well documented, as is his grandson William Farrar of Va, the immigrant.
There is a tendency amongst persons with a surname that has an "F" and two "R"'s, to fit themselves into the Farrar family of Va or Massachussetts, principally because the lineages are fairly well researched (and "auspicious", and that solves the problem for many, who run into dead ends.
Alas genealogy is, if nothing else, a story of dead ends and brick walls.
Many a Farrar believe that they are descended from a Norman by name of Gualkelein whose son Henricus was Capt of Horse for Duke William le batard conquerant in 1066.Unfortunately the lineages of this man are not complete, and the lineages published and pedigrees known do not include
the ancestor of William Farrar of Va.
His pedigree back to his great grandfather Henry Ferror(Farrar) of Ewood manor is known and documented, but it stops there for the Farrar's, however through Sissley Kelke's ancestry it picks up again, such irony.
Anyway, spelling of surnames was not at all stabilized in England or America, and neither were given names (e.g. Cecily, Sissley, Scicly, etc)
Virginia documents show the name as William Farrer, then
marriage and birth records as well as legal documents show the name as Farrar or Farrer and sometimes both in the same document, then as the family started migrating, especially southward, clerks and lawyers and public officials would spell the name as it sounds, Farrow, Pharrow, Fairer, and even Farrar, one document I've seen has my ancestor Richard Farrar as Richard Farrow and Richard Farrar within the same paragraph, almost.
Genealogies are easily constructed, by those seeking quick answers or an ancestry of "nobility" or fame, and they are.
And since most folk lack the resources (money, time, persistence) or analytical skills to conduct a thorough investigation, they will read a book, (like Some Farrar Island Descendants) find something that seems to fit and then adopt the family as their own, or simply google names and then start filling in their ancestry. This happened in my family, and it has taken me years to overcome and I'm still trying to correct misinformation.
The best, and only rational approach, is to construct tentative genealogies, and tell yourself and others that they are not writ in stone, that way one does not look like a fool when they have to back up, make changes, or admit that they made a mistake.I know, so well, the feeling.
By the way, as far as I'm concerned, there is more than one line of the name Farrar, and certainly Farrow. And I'm not at all convinced that all English Farrar's share the same common ancestry, in fact I'm positive that they don't.
To my knowledge there is only one English surname that can trace it's ancestry to the Norman invaders.
Farrow is an occupational name, so in 1070 when the Normans were conducting and inventory of Williams personal possession (England and it's contents), for taxation purposes and ease of accounting surnames were given to people.
Most often the basis of a surname was some characteristic, like location (Burrough, Brook, Wood), patrynomy (Davis..son of David, Williamson, Johnson), physcial characteristic, (short, tall, whitehead,blackhead) or occupational (Fuller,Walker, Cooper, Wainwright, Farrow.
As I said Farrar is a locational name, it's root is Latin, Ferrum, iron, and Henricus Capt of Horse was from a region in Normandy (Ferreries) which was an iron deposit, and a place where horseshoes and armor were forged and made.
Farrow is, as I said, an occupational name, a derivative of iron worker or smithy, and is much more common in England, and it's concentration is in the area of England where iron ore and peat iron or found.
Anway DNA is the final filter.
So if you know of any male Farrar or Farrow in your family or circle of friends, maybe you can induce them to join the Farrar DNA project.
http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/farrar/resultshttp://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/farrar/results.
Then again joining such a project is scarey, because the results might conflict withfamily myths and beliefs, that's always a risk, but in our project, though there was a shock, two families, not surnamed Farrar, discovered that they had a lineage and a finally a family tree that they could climb down.. since once they discovered they were Farrar's they were able to start exploring other avenues, rather than continue banging heads against walls, as try as they might, they kept running into dead ends in one case they couldn't make a connection past 1848, now they can trace back to 1471, in the other case they dead ended at 1776.