What's In A Name & Upcoming Events

What's In A Name?
Are you curious about the origin of your name? We have two new books that delve into this subject.

American Surnames by Elsdon C. Smith divides this subject into six broad categories:
Classification of Surnames
Surnames from Father's Name
Surnames from Occupation or Office
Surnames from Description or Action (nicknames)
Surnames from Places
Surnames Not Properly Included Elsewhere
Mr. Smith also provides a list of the 2000 most common surnames in use in the United States, ranked in order of frequency.

Clues to Our Family Names by Lou Stein lists hundreds of surnames; many of these have a description of their use or origin and the root from which they rose.  Chapters in this book include:
How Our Family Names Began
Family Names from Nicknames
Family Names from Occupations
Family Names from Parents' First Names
Family Names from Address Names

Upcoming Events:
Thursday, November 10 at 7:00 at the Roy and Helen Hall Memorial Library: The North Collin County Genealogical Society will host Paula Perkins, a Professional Genealogical Consultant, Lecturer, and Instructor of genealogy classes.  Ms. Perkins will present Secular, Denominational, Ethnic & Trade Newspapers: Location of the papers, records to be found and how to retrieve these under-used sources locally.  This program is free and open to all.

Saturday, November 19 at 10:15 - 11:45 am in the Roy and Helen Hall Memorial Library:  If you or someone you know has wanted to start tracing their family tree, but don’t know quite how to get started, then our FREE Genealogy 101 Workshop is for them.  If you are an experienced Genealogist, please let your beginning genealogy friends know about this program.  We will discuss the different forms to be used, what resources can help with the start of a family tree and a tour of the Genealogy section of the Library.  For more information, contact Susan at skusterbeck@mckinneytexas.org or 972.547.7343