Whats my heritage?

Question

My mothers name is Wooden and I think it has always been Wooden for many generations. My dads family has last names such as Buster, and Panella. My last name is Cassity

Answer 1

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/fact.aspx?&fid=10&fn=&ln=Wooden

Wooden
English (mainly Norfolk): variant of Wooding.

Buster
Austrian German (Tyrol and Allgäu): nickname from a derivative of Buste ‘pock mark’, ‘boil’ (from Latin apostema ‘boil’).

Panella
Italian: from a diminutive of Pane.

Cassity
Variant of Irish Cassidy.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

YOUR heritage is the person(s) from whom you are descended.. spelling and/or definition of the surname has very little to do with if your ancestors were mariners, or farmers in Missouri, died on the Gold Rush in Calif, or... If one of your surnames happens to be of "French" origin, it still may be that the person was raised in another country entirely. And each one of those ancestors are individuals, with their own specific facts.
There is no telling what you will find as you work backwards. Maybe the one thing I can tell you is to be sure to start with you, and confirm your link to your parents with good documentation. That is because you may think you know "facts' that you are told.. unless what you are told is what has been passed down, and wasn't accurate to start with. We have that here often .. "but we were always told...", when the records show otherwise.
Among the persons you might find, in the 1800s, many persons were early settlers in their county or neighborhood, and as such, wind up with bios in published books. Not that those bios are always exact..but you learn more about the person. Churches were important in early America, so if your ancestor was involved with one, you can find much from those records. Careful.. that may include being kicked out for alcohol use or other "scandals".
In my opinion.. names only are useful in research, as a tool to find the person.
www.cyndislist.com is my favorite place as far as finding guides to beginning research... and then the thousands of different online sources. You will be amazed at the variety of topics. But then, your ancestors will surprise you too.

Answer 3

Every time I see a "Surname Origin?" question, I think of the joke:

Man sees a sign, "Olaf Olafson, Chinese Restaurant". He goes in, orders a plate of chow mein, asks the Chinese gentleman behind the counter who is Olaf. Chinese gentleman says, "Me! There I was at Ellis Island. The man in front of me was a Swede, six foot four, broad shoulders, red beard. They ask him 'Name?' he says 'Olaf Olafson', in a voice that makes the pens rattle in their holders. Off he goes to seek his fortune. They ask me 'Name?', I say 'Sam Ting', and here I am."

Seriously, you should have 16 surnames among your great great grandparents, unless you double up on Smith, Johnson, Miller or Jones or someone married a cousin.

If you are in the USA and trace your family tree, you might find a downtrodden immigrant who came through Ellis Island yearning to be free, a bootlegger, a flapper, a great uncle who died in the muddy trenches of France in 1917. You may find someone who marched off to fight in the Civil War (Maybe two, one wearing blue, one wearing grey). You may find a German who became Pennsylvania "Dutch", a Huguenot, an Irish Potato Famine immigrant. You might find someone who married at 18 and supported his family with musket, plow and axe in the howling wilderness we now call Ohio.

In the UK your chances of finding a homesteader are less, but your chances of finding that great uncle who served in WWI are better.

In Australia you may find someone who got a free ride to a new home, courtesy of the benevolent Government and HM Prison ship "Hope".

Your grandfather with that surname may have married a Scot, a Sioux, a Swede. HIS father, a stolid, dull protestant, may have married an Italian with flashing dark eyes, the first woman on the block to serve red wine in jelly glasses and use garlic in her stew. You'll never know if this is the only question you ask.

Answer 4

Did you ask someone in your family for the origin. If not, go to the public library, one of the librarians should be able to look up the name for you.