where did most of the African Americans get there last names from?

Question

i was wondern cuz i am an african american and i want to know where did i get my last (pugh) name from its welsh did i get it from a white man did my family orginaly come from the uk or w.e...cuz my sister said my fathers father was white but im dark skinned not light but have good hair not kinky or anything kinda like indian...how could i find this information out in the future when i get older and have money ..cuz i wonder about my ancestors.

Answer 1

well when you use the term african american what exactly does that mean? when you referred to the a white man from uk or w.e. shouldn't you have used the term european american then. America is a melting pot of the world, it degrades her by mixing in other ethnic names before her. also if you move to africa someday and called yourself an american african , how do think they would react?

Answer 2

Blacks were intentionally stripped of not just their names but anything at all that they could identify their heritage with. They were discouraged from creating any type of familial unit. It was a much more horrid and brutal experience for Africans in America than for any other slaves in history. While some may have chose surnames other than their slave masters (only a few did this by the way) even they had no clue as to what their true names were supposed to sound like so they still chose European names. This is why all these names are basically still slave names. This is also why, after the Black Power and awareness movement in the '70s, many African Americans choose names that are purposely not of European origin. Some have chosen to create their own new identity for themselves and their families. So people only laugh and make fun of Shenaynay, Latiqua, Desean, Lebron, Jaquan, etc. because they are ignorant as to the intent. Just for the record I don't care for any of those names either. I'll probably stick with the slave name until someone is our family figures out what tribe we came from.

Answer 3

Good for you, the genealogy. It is estimated that all Blacks (and forgive me, I very much prefer that term) have been part of America's melting pot. That is, so many African Americans have some White or whatever. Should you ever meet an African African, it is astonishing about their differences compared to the American Africans.

I, myself grew up thinking my family was German. A relative did the genealogy and we are in fact Irish way back when. Then, the trail gets lost unless we can find out what the name of the boat was that brought over my Irish ancestors. Incidentally, that original Irish American doesn't have my family's surname. Indeed, there is so much mingling with a variety of European bloods that without a doubt, I'm American.

I would guess African Americans were named after their owners and thus kept that surname as their family name. I did read a Yahoo! news article concerning slave records in America as a project for genealogy. You might search Yahoo! news looking for that.

To do it right, and so you don't get ripped off, you have to do it yourself. You have to interview old people you avoided while growing up and now find wonderful. You have to visit courthouses and old cemeteries. It's a satisfying hobby. There is genealogy software available to help you organize your search. Some of the software is free. Some software is better than others. The Mormons, of course are the biggest efforts and one of the major resources.

Answer 4

Most Afro-American's surnames came from their owners. When they were freed men they often took the name of whatever trade they did or kept the surname of their former master. Some, but very few, returned to using their former names (if they could remember them) from before they were made slaves.

The best way to look this up is to find the centralized location of your ancestors. Lets say your ancestors came from Alabama, you would find out a relatives name (ie: Thadeus Johnston who was your great-great-great grandfather and he was a single man) look at that states census for the year 1866 and find out which Johnston's ran plantations in that area. See how many slaves he owned, some are listed by name and some are listed by description. Anyway, you can trace your geneology through the census. You can also find freedmen through the census.

Back then there were a lot of white men who slept with the slaves who maintained the main house so it's very possible that your ancestry has a lot of mixed blood.

Also, check out the link below, it could help you answer some questions regarding your heritage.

Answer 5

You know, there are a great many colleges that give classes in these subjects, always are they interesting if not controversial beforehand, jammed pack with all manners of denial and confusion, and example of the whole dilemma of being American. None is exempt who were born and bred in America.

Many of the olden turns of thought and speech, going back centuries can be found evident in the youngest of ages. The mind conditioning is simply amazing of how far we have to go in understanding but as well how far we have come.

Often we Americans think, say, and act out things without realizing that ours is old thinking, old conditioning.

There is a word you used found most typically used among black Americans -- that of "good" hair; or the term used by both black and white Americans -- "kinky" hair...

Funny if not sad histories indeed associated with the whole genesis of how this all came about.

Such are centuries-old turns of thought and speech, and is fascinating how these terms never went out of fashionable use, especially amid all the new turns like hip hop language and language that came out of Jazz and R&B music.

Slangs and word vulgarities have come and gone, but terms like "good" hair and "kinky" hair are still commonly thought and used.

Answer 6

Surnames for former slaves mostly cmae from famose presidents, Like Wasington,Jefferson and Jackson, also from the plantation they where on was another common source, whatever the owners name was they adopted it as there own. these are the two main sources, and after the civil war, many continued using those names. Yor surname could be from a former salve master, or a share cropper land owner after the civil war, or as your sister says fro myour fathers father, who might have been white, that is easy to check if you got your fathers name and birth year, as well as know the state, and better yet the county and town he lived in, you can check the census records, if he was born before 1930, and it will list his parents. you can chekc your fathers family memebers and see if anyone remembers such an account, you can search old newspapers from when your greandfather died, and it will be in his obituary, s to getting the year he was born, and you can use that name and bith date and check census records pror to 1930 to find out his race. there are severa lways, yo could check your dad's birth certificate, it would more than likely list parents race, etc. good luck, happy hunting.

Answer 7

------Some former slaves took the last name of the man who owned them, or perhaps their overseer's name, but many others probably did not.

------Others chose common English last names, for example, "Johnson" and "Smith".

------Occasionally, freed slaves would pick the last name of an historical person, for instance, Booker T. Washington honored George Washington with his selection.

------Sometimes, former slaves would select a name that described their new position--"Freeman".

------Of course, occasionally, a slave might take the name of a master who fathered him or her; for example, Thomas Jefferson's mistress, Sally Hemmings, took the name of a white ancestor.

Kimberly Powell in an "Introduction to African American Genealogy" recommends that African American family historians follow two steps when researching their ancestors:

1) After talking with older family members and finding as many primary documents as possible, for instance, family bibles, letters, and old military records, turn to the US Census from 1930 to 1870 (the first census after the Emancipation Proclaimation).
2) Forget some stereotypical ideas that most Americans hold about slavery: a) Not every African American before 1865 was a slave, for example: 1 out of every 10 were "free blacks" as documented in US Free Population Schedules in 1860. b) Very few slaves worked on large self-sustaining plantations like Scarlett O'Hara's fictional Tara. Most slave owners owned only five slaves or less. Most Southern whites didn't own any slaves at all, but worked small family farms.

Finally, get started on discovering your family's history while you are in your teens and 20s if for no other reason than your most precious source of information--older relatives--won't be around forever.

Also, it doesn't cost anything to look up US Census records in the government document section of your local public library; and in addition, most public libraries allow you to access online genealogy services, such as Ancestry.com. Some excellent online sources, such as the Latter Day Saints' site http://www.familysearch.org/ are free to the public.

Answer 8

In the USA, slaves typically didn't have last names. The last names that a slave or former slave handed on to a descendant could have been the surname (last name) of someone he or she admired...could have been the surname of a white owner who was an ancestor and the person doing the naming wanted that to be remembered...etc.

Answer 9

Good luck with tracing your ancestry. It is difficult for any of us and very difficult for those of us that came as indentured servants or slaves as well as those that had difficult surnames to pronounce. Often times immigration would assign new surnames that sounded more American.

Begin now by asking older generations in your family what they remember as facts and what they remember being told. Keep notes on this and keep details separating fact from possibility.

Check with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Genealogy library to see if they have any records on your family - you may be surprised.

Good luck and happy hunting!!

Answer 10

Your Grandfather could be white and your Grandmother could be black. You could carry the genes of one of your parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc. You could resemble any one of your ancestors or a combination of a lot of ancestors.