Orangejack Lifestream

I mean, I know it’s not a huge surprise, but dang…

• There are 4,939,265 people in the U.S. with the first name Robert.
• Statistically, ‘Robert’ is the 3rd most popular first name in the US.
• There are 1,782,790 people in the U.S. with the last name Williams.
• Statistically, ‘Williams’ is the 3rd most popular last name.

HowManyOfMe.com There are

people with my name in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

 

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I’ve recently been trying to figure out just how far back can I can trace my family’s roots, especially with when and where they immigrated to the US. I’ve always said that my family has been American for so long that though we have European roots, we’re pretty much just American!

And now I can prove it!

I’ve been playing around on Ancestry.com and have learned a lot about my fraternal line and some of it’s branches. Here’s the highlights…

I started on my fraternal grandparents and their trees. That gave me 4 surnames to trace: Williams and Blair are my grandfather’s parent’s names, along with Hollis and McFadden for my grandmother. Here’s the quick summary:

• Williams – Wales to Virginia b/w 1615-1640
• Blair – Ireland to South Carolina b/w 1812-1844
• Hollis – England to Virginia b/w 1700-1728
• McFadden – Ireland to South Carolina b/w 1731-1763

As I unpacked it more, it was pretty fun. The Williams’ left Wales and settled in Virginia b/w 1615-1640. They stayed in VA for 7 generations until likely the early 1800′s. In VA, they were in the area of current day Tappahannock, Culpepper, and Stafford. They left VA to live around Jefferson, GA for 4 generations. However, the dates are conflicting because there are also 4 generations in NC (mostly around Haywood) from early 1800′s until the early 1900′s when my Grandfather moved to SC. Before leaving Europe, I can trace 3 generations back to 1554, one in Wales and two in London.

On my Grandfather’s mother’s line, I have only traced 3 generations back. The Blair family left Ireland b/w 1812-1844 and settled in Charleston, SC then moved to York County, SC.

My Grandmother’s fraternal line left Surrey, England b/w 1700-1728 and settled in Fairfax, VA. They stayed in VA for 2 more generations then moved to Chester County, SC b/w 1755-1794. They stayed in SC for 4 more generations until my Great-Grandfather moved to York County, SC by the early 1900′s.

Her mother’s line can be traced back to leaving Antrim, Ireland (before it became Northern Ireland) b/w 1731-1763 and also settled in Chester County, SC for 8 generations.

So the summary is that of the 4 major lines of my fraternal grandparents, they all left what is now the UK, two of which settled in Colonial Virginia, one in Colonial South Carolina, and one in the State of South Carolina!

So there’s my proof. We were from the UK and some of the early settlements in VA and SC before the US was the US.

And I find that kinda cool.

Now to start tracing my maternal grandparent’s trees…

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