Re: DNA Hope surname project
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In reply to:
Re: DNA Hope surname project
barb liska 5/29/04
No connection I can see i'm afraid. My Hope ancestors are down to my paternal grandmother's mother.They were indigenous to the Westerkirk area of Eskdale north of Langholm. Longtown and Rockcliffe are on the Solway; the former east of Gretna is largely of fairly recent origin, a place where your ancestors may have settled in the 1870s rather than have been native. Rockcliffe is 40 miles west near Dalbeattie, in neighbouring Galloway. The problem is that you are only tracing back to 1870s by which time many families in this area were on the move. My ancestors were sheep farmers, and land reorganisation meant many were displaced and either emigrated or moved to the industrial towns. My great great grandfather, James Hope, moved to Beattock in northern Dumfriesshire about 1870. I do not know the whereabouts of his brother's descendants, but one moved to Lanarkshire and came back to the area in old age, and another may have ended up in Wales. To be realistic you have to find where your ancestors were around 1840/50. Hopes were found in Eskdale, Annandale and Nithsdale. Be watchfull for spelling variations such as Hoop (mine were Hoop around 1800). Also be aware of the quite differently derived titled family of Hope.