|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
The WFA Research Google Group
Join the discussion and learn from family historians. These forums can help you with your research and provide you with opportunities to help others. The WFA Research Google Group is the exclusive forum of the Whiteside Family Association.
The WFA Research Google Group
Other Whiteside genealogy forums on:Genealogy.com
Distantcousin.com
Would you like to see the 2009 Branson Gathering pictures? Click on the picture. The W
FA DNA project is one of our most interesting functions. Over 70 interested family members have had their DNA analysed, from 12 markers to 67. Headed by our Past President Warren Whiteside, this is an onward growing key part of the WFA. If you would like more information, email by clicking on Warren Whiteside. If you would like to read about our DNA project please Read More
THE QUESTION: People ask why people have surnames corresponding to colours such as Black, White, Grey, Brown and Green, but not surnames for colours such as Purple, Blue, Red, Orange or Yellow.For the Whitesides this is rather important, right?
THE ANSWER: "The particular colours that feature in family names mostly refer to hair or complexion," writes Tim Nau, former associate editor of Onomastica Canadiana, the journal of the Canadian Soc,iety for the Study of Names. "That's why we seldom encounter a last name such as Blue, Purple or Orange, but often come across Blacks, Browns, Greys, and Whites."In addition, he says, there are many "hidden" colour names, such as Russell (red-headed or red-faced), Blundell (from-the Old French "blund" or "blond"), and Moore (dark-skinned like a Moor).Green, however, has a different explanation. "It usually referred to someone who lived on the village green." He says all these names started out as nicknames and later became family names.We might add that Reid was a northern English word for "red" that became a common surname and that Fairfax means "fair-haired," from theOld English faex for hair. .
My brother used to be pals with a Maxine Blue [and] my father had a (presumably Protestant) real estate agent named William Orange (whom, as a bumptious teenager in the 1960s, I couldn't resist calling Agent Orange}" He also points out that Gold is a variant of yellow.
Copyright ©
2005 - 2010 .
Designed by JoomlArt.com
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.
2010 FAMILY GATHERING: It is time to make your reservations and plan on coming to Lancaster, PA. We would love to have you join us.