My grandfather doesn't know his heritage...?

Question

Both of his parents died while he was still an infant. He was always told he was part German and that's it. His last name is Willis and his mom's maiden name is Lawson. What do you think his heritage probaly is based on his last name?

Also how can he find out?

Answer 1

Wendy's tip # 2.. DON'T rely on using a last name to find heritage. Trace individuals instead of surnames. Names can (and do) come from many different places.
And you can trace the ancestors.. www.rootsweb.com has one of many good tutorials. www,cyndislist.com has a huge collection of genealogical resources (including many articles for beginners). If you post full names with places and approx dates, you'll get help here.
Don't forget, this is your heritage too.

Answer 2

Indeed your grandfather may have been part German. He had four grandparents, and any one of those may have been German, not necessarily the one called Willis.

For other people's queries, I start a yahoo search - for instance 'willis genealogy' or 'lawson genealogy'. Links come up which may be investigated further.

So, your grandfather's parents died while he was an infant. Where are they buried? Church records, gravestones or death records will give you answers. Who brought him up, and where? More clues there, perhaps even school records.Are there other relatives from his generation still living, who could fill you in? Or their children?

If you find his ancestors were immigrants who came by boat, lists of passengers with info about name, age, country of origin and date of arrival can be got by doing a search online. Census records for that country may help you go back further. I think I found this immigrant info by looking for Ellis Island records.

This type of delving into history can be very interesting. Go out there and have fun !!

Answer 3

I´m sorry to tell you that neither the name Willis nor Lawson point to a German heritage of your grandfather, if they weren´t written in a very different way in the past. The Name Wille f.e. is rather common in northern Germany, and there are some Larsons, too, whose ancestors actually were Scandinavians. Well, of course there may still be the possibility that the guardians of your grandfather changed his name to make it sound English. German names were unfavourable during the times, when he was a child.

Answer 4

If you know the year and which state or province he was born in, his mothers' full name, and where the family lived when the parents died, you could sign up with an online genealogy service like ancestor.com and start researching there.
Each state or province also has a vital statistics department which records the births and deaths of people, and knowing the year and location of your grandfather's birth will probably help you find both his parents' names quite quickly.
Unless he was adopted and his last name changed, of course. That makes it a little tougher, but not impossible, to find records of who adopted him and what his original family name was.

In following these routes, it is entirely possible you will link up to other of his family members, people descended from his aunts, uncles and grandparents. I have heard of this happening quite often, and some families who have discovered other branches of their family after 4-5 generations now hold reunions.
Other members of your own family, of course, will most likely have some idea of their g-g-grandparents' heritage.

http://www.ancestor.com/

There are other genealogy services out there. It will take some time to learn the ins and outs and tricks of doing genealogy work, so be patient.

Answer 5

Ask Grandpa to help you put together all the information he knows, then go out and find the records to figure out who his parents were...and their parents...and their parents' parents.

If he knows where his parents lived and died, then start with his birth records, baptismal records, his parents' death certificates, their obituaries, their marriage record, their birth/baptismal records. See if you can find a will at the courthouse in one of their names. The majority of Americans in their generation are only 3-5 generations away from their immigrant ancestors. If you trace back just a few generations, you'll know exactly where they came from, when they came, and you'll be able to figure out your heritage in just a few days.

Wendy's advice is very sage. Don't use the name to figure out someone's ethnicity. You're only looking at 1/32nd of a person's gene pool with their surname. The other 31/32 of their ancestors are every bit as important as their paternal great-great grandfather.

Research really isn't hard...and maybe it's a wonderful project for you and Grandpa to do together. He might appreciate finding out who his family was.

Answer 6

Lawson sounds Anglo-Saxon. Not sure about Willis.There are ancestry sites you can join on the web, they are very helpful. And local libraries should have records as well.

Many Anglo-Saxons have Germanic roots.

Answer 7

search census records...go to your local library and they'll direct you.