I looked up my last name and it said it was a Scottish clan of French origin. Does this mean my ancestry is mainly Scottish or French ?( For my fathers side, I know on my mothers I am Welsh, and English.)
Update:
Its “Fraser” . Says could be Norman.
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This is what I found:
Fraser Name Meaning
Scottish: of uncertain origin. The earliest recorded forms of this family name, dating from the mid-th century, are de Fresel, de Friselle, and de Freseliere. These appear to be Norman, but there is no place in France with a name answering to them. It is possible, therefore, that they represent a Gaelic name corrupted beyond recognition by an Anglo-Norman scribe. The modern Gaelic form is Friseal, sometimes Anglicized as Frizzell.
The surname Fraser is also borne by Jews, in which case it represents an Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN —
So, welcome to the wonderful world of genealogy, where there are no certainties or exact answers.
What it means is your dad was born a Fraser, probably, as was his dad, and his dad, and his dad . . . unless, for instance, his grandfather was the result of a brief but passionate affair with a USAAF airman named Pack while the Fraser she was married to was touring North Africa at government expense, but they covered it up; or someone named “Kablonski” came over from Poland in , set up a sausage shop in Oban and changed his name to “Fraser” to appear more Scottish, and to make it harder for the debt collector / jealous husband / press gang to find him.
If you did spend man a happy evening searching for dead ancestors, instead of updating your twitter feed or playing “Angry Birds” or doing your homework, you might find you do indeed descend from someone who came over with William the Conqueror and his band of Normans, most of whom, were born in France of, if you go back far enough, Viking heritage. They and their descendants have been in England, oftimes marrying (or at least coupling with) women of English origin, since . Would you call those alive today English, French, Norman or Viking? People move. If you go back , – , years, supposedly, we’re all Africans.
Was it Scottish of French origin or Norman? There are many names that came over with William the Conqueror and ultimately became English, Scottish and Irish.
Surnames do not have a genealogy. Your ancestors with the surname do. You have to understand your father got your surname from only one person in each generation you go back. Your father could have a French surname but his overall ancestry might be German, Irish, Polish or whatever.
We don’t trace surnames in genealogy. Trace your ancestry. Go back one generation at a time. Your father’s family lines will double each generation you go back. He, like you, has parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents and it keeps doubling and probably all those great great grandparents had a different surname
After searching for the Surnames using the spelling you provided it appears the they come from an area now known as Slavic countries. Meaning that Czech and Hungarian would be the correct place for this name to have originated. I was not able to locate an exact spelling that matched what you provided or a meaning to either name.
Surnames generally have very little to do with genetics. You never know when an ancestor was adopted or cuckolded or whatnot.
The best you can do it work with the etymology of the name in question. If it’s a Scottish surname, most likely the people who had it were of Scottish ethnicity. The French dunked their d!cks in everything in Europe, so don’t fuss about them.