compiled by Nancy J. Price
“How did your last name come to be — and who brought it to America? Find out in this book, featuring 400 pages of information about more than a thousand last names of the original colonists and other early settlers!” ~ first paragraph of book description.
Disappointing. The title states early European settlers; that’s the 1600s and 1700s. The first paragraph states “…last names of the original colonists and other early settlers!” But right after the “Introduction” comes “Important Notes About This Book” and the very first bullet says “…surnames from the past — most from the early 1900s but going back as far as the year 1818.” That is NOT the original colonists!
One of my early European direct ancestor’s surnames is MORSE, Joseph MORSE who was born in England circa 1587 and was the first to come to the “new world”. He died in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1646. BUT who appears as “the” MORSE? Samuel Morse, inventor of the Morse Code. Notable? Yes, but everything about the name MORSE is in connection with Samuel MORSE.
Another direct ancestor lookup was surname LIVINGSTON which I’ve traced back to John LIVINGSTON, born in Pennsylvania Colony in 1776. His father may (often posted but I have not founded documentation to support this) be Thomas LIVINGSTON who was the original immigrant of this line. And yes, the “last name” Livingston is in this book.
HOWEVER, and I quote, “The founder of the family in the United States was Robert Livingston…” [The bolding is mine.] The way it reads is that if you are a LIVINGSTON, then you are a direct descendant of Robert Livingston, signed the Declaration of Independence.
The book does have an index of “last names” and a list of “Sources & References” broken into books, magazines & journals, ‘other newspapers’ (the oldest is 1899).
No footnotes or endnotes. No way to know where any of the data in the book has documentation to back up what is written.
GIVE THIS ONE A PASS … This isn’t a useful reference book. It’s just a compiled set of notes.