Potpourri Demographically Speaking..... Where the "Roots" of the class of ‘55? An analysis of all the surnames or family names, of the class of ‘55 yields the following: German:* incl. Swiss, Austrian, & other | 69 | English: ** | 50 | Scandinavian: not inc. Finnish | 49 | French, Fr. Canadian: | 22 | Slavic: mci. Polish, Czech, Russian, etc | 13 | Scots-Irish: | 11 | Finnish: *** | 8 | Italian and Greek: | 4 | Other: | 0 | Total | 226 |
*Most surnames are identifiable as to origin linguistically, but others are only to be guessed at. Also, Americans being a nation of immigrants, many find that ancestors who left the "old country" changed their names when they emigrated. A few reasons for this: -to sound "American" -to adopt a name that was less common e. g. instead of "Olson" perhaps "Nordland" (north land) -or to escape creditors. **Many "English" surnames of today were not so 100 years ago. Often "White" was once "Weiss" or "Blanc" or "Bianchi." "Miller" was one "Miller" or "Mûlier" or "Melnik." *** Some obvious English names were counted as Finnish, because I knew they originally were. A note from your Web Master: I am sure that I'm counted as English. It should have been under Slavic as my Grandfather came from Poland and he changed it to Lake from Leja.
Page updated 05 Oct 2005 |