Are all SMITHS related?

Question

if you have the same last name, are you related by blood somewhere down the line?

Answer 1

No...when they were doing Surnames way back in the day they were typically done by your occupation. You could have had 2 silversmiths one from one area and another from somewhere else that have never even met, but both got the Surname of Smith...

Answer 2

It is very unlikely that all Smiths are related. The name smith comes from the profession by the same name. This means that anyone who worked as a smith of any kind, be it blacksmith, goldsmith, etc., could have taken the name Smith as their surname.

Answer 3

It's possible somewhere along the line.
The earliest i've got is a Zechariah Smith, a Methodist preacher born 1816 in Roydon but haven't been able to find anything about his parents.
Many Smiths I've talked to on Genesreunited also have him as an ancestor, you may want to join and get into contact with them.

Answer 4

I would seriously doubt it, because Smith is a trade name.
When surnames first came into practice, people were often named after their profession: Baker, Taylor, Cooper (barrel maker).

Smith would refer to a blacksmith or someone else who works forging metal. Since there were many blacksmiths in medieval England, there are likely many branches of the Smith family.

Answer 5

I have the real explanation for why you see so many unrelated "Smith's". Back when lots of Europeans were immigrating to the USA, many had names which the immigration officials thought were too difficult to spell. Others simply didn't want to catch discrimination as quickly, and in either case lots of complex names got changed to "smith", "jones", etc. Some of the simplifications were less drastic, like jurgens to irgens as a pronunciation guide.

Answer 6

Well, I am a Smith but I am not related to any Smith's. So that answers your question, No, not all Smith's are related by blood. How? My father was born a Biswell, but his parents were divorced. His mother re-married to a Mr. Smith who then adopted my father which changed his name to Smith.

Answer 7

last names often originated from what job you did or what area you were from.
often the last name smith came from being blacksmith

Answer 8

Mostly not but certain ones can be traced to a common ancestor several generations back,