Saturday, April 24, 2010

Prancing around in wooden clogs

a little geneology on a Saturday morning

I was thinking about surnames this morning and decided to do a little research on a couple in our family. Here's what I found:

Adkins - English, (son of Adam) arrived mid-1600's

Chafin - English, it was the name given to a bald man, it's derived from the Old French word chauf, people bearing the name Chafin arrived in America as early as 1680

Blair - Scottish, from the English/Scottish borderlands, county of Ayrshire, arrived in America in the early 1700's

Mcleod - (very obviously Scottish) Leod held the island of Lewis, these immigrants arrived in America around the time of the American Revolution as the west was being opened up for exploration and settlement (McLeod is on Mom's side, and there is a McCloud on Dad's which is basically the same surname)

Runyan - English BUT Runyan is the Anglicized version of the French surname Rongnon, who were exiles from France because of religious views, makes sense since our Runyans were Mennonites (right Mom?) the first of these settlers arrived around 1665

Farmer - Irish - arrived in England around 1066, the name doesn't mean they were farmers, but they were the people who collected taxes from the farmers, they left England to escape religious persecution and arrived in Virginia from the early to late 1600's

Jessie - English and German, the first of these arrived in the mid-1800's

Craighead - Scottish, some are noted as fighting in the American Revolution, so I guess that means they were here before 1776.

Arrington - Scottish, of the Scottish/English borderlands, first found in Cumberland, were here before the Revolution, but many remained loyal to the British and moved to Canada

Baker - English, German, Dutch, there were Bakers in Virginia as early as 1637

Feazell - English, North Hampton

Coleman - Irish, English - derived from two distinct Gaelic names, O' Clumhain, meaning down or feathers and O'Colmain, meaning dove, the name dates from Ireland of the Middle Ages

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Rock climbing champs

Beach trip to Montana de Oro

shark egg?
scanning the beach for good rocks


stones for skipping

exploring the sea caves
more beach exploration
watching the waves roll in

great sea cave explorers

Followers