How to find out where your last name comes from. How to independently find out the pedigree, family tree of your family by last name: archival data, searching on the Internet, on TV shows. Methods of searching for ancestors and relatives by last name: description. Where to start searching for your

What does a surname even mean?
Here we present known definitions according to two interpretations of this concept.

Option one. Last name is "Name of the family."

A hereditary family name added to a personal name and passed from father to children. (Dictionary of foreign words); Clan, tribe, generation, tribe, blood, ancestors and descendants. Nickname, name, family name. (Dahl's Dictionary).

Last name (Latin familia - family) is a hereditary family name, indicating that a person belongs to one clan, originating from a common ancestor, or in a narrower sense - to one family. Surnames were widespread back in Ancient Rome, primarily among family nobility. According to the research of V. A. Nikonov, surnames arose late; if measured by historical scale, apparently in northern Italy in the 10th-11th centuries, the economically most developed areas of Europe.

From Lombardy through Piedmont the surname “came” to neighboring Provence (south-eastern France); in 1066, the Normans, having conquered England, transferred it there from Normandy (northern France). In Europe, they were practically not used in the Middle Ages; they began to be revived in the 15th century, primarily among the upper classes. At the turn of the XV-XVI centuries. The surnames reached Denmark. In 1526, the king ordered all nobles to acquire surnames. From Denmark and Germany, surnames passed to the Swedes. In Russia, surnames were introduced by law in the 16th century, first for princes and boyars, then for nobles and eminent merchants. Among the peasantry, surnames began to be used only after the abolition of serfdom. At the same time, quite often peasants registered under the surname of their former owners.

FAMILY - A family community that has a founder - a person who gave his family his own nickname as a surname. All namesakes are related. Each family clan is a branch of a more ancient clan.

Option two. A surname is a collection of genera of the same name.

Like the NAMES of people, there are namesakes among genera. There are common generic names, for example Ivanovs, Petrovs, Smirnovs. Each one is like this the surname unites several family clans.

HOWEVER, MOST OF THE 15,000 RUSSIAN SURNAMES ARE UNIQUE AND BELONG TO NO MORE THAN ONE GENERAL.

Russian non-noble surnames have short story. Our ancestors, especially peasants, did not have fixed surnames. In the census books, a person was identified by his first name and patronymic; sometimes a household nickname was indicated, which was not inherited. General "family formation" occurred only in the 19th century, at the same time, Russian families can be documented in the 17th century.

In fact, Russian family clans are just named branches of more ancient clans - clans. (I took everything stated in this part of the section from serious sources without changing anything).

To conclude this section of the page, I would like to bring forth an interesting thought on the topic of family lineage, kinship, etc., originating from young researchers. I found this note in 2004 on the page http://news.battery.ru/theme/science/?news...64&from_m=smail. So, read the revelation of the century:

“The Krasnoyarsk school genealogical society, after studying family trees, came to the conclusion that all the inhabitants of the planet are 14th cousins ​​of each other. All the research has led to the fact that by tracing the pedigree of any person, you can find a relationship with another person, the degree of distance of which is a maximum of 14 genera.” ….. and further: “It turned out that almost every schoolchild is a descendant of a famous historical figure. One is closer to Leo Tolstoy, the other to Alexander Pushkin, the third has roots in the family of Roman emperors,” said Margarita Karnaukhova. Chairman of the Regional Historical and Genealogical Society Sergei Mesyats, who has been studying genealogy issues for more than 10 years, noted that Schoolchildren’s research has a full scientific basis and is “not only interesting, but practically important.”

Like this!!! So, maybe there is no need for us to clarify anything at all about our family and about our ancestors - anyway, one of us will “come” to the Roman emperor, the other to Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Choose!

Such a scientific conclusion did not convince me of the truth of what was stated and did not diminish my interest in my ancestors and in everything that was connected with them. Probably, I didn’t convince because by that time I had already seen something related to the history of mankind: while still a schoolboy in my homeland in Primorye, I participated in the excavations of a medieval settlement of the Jurgens - a state that at one time conquered China and was later plundered by the Tatar-Mongols ; visited the obelisk erected in Kabul at the place where, according to legend, the war horse of Alexander the Great was buried; climbed Mount Emei in Sichuan Province, China, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where Buddha was supposedly born; bathed in a hot spring in the city of the Romans, built by them in the 1st century in the territory of modern Turkey; looked at the bends of the Danube from the height of the monastery in Vyshgorod - the old capital of the Hungarians, who spent hundreds of years wandering from the Urals to Transcarpathia; shuddered at what he saw and learned in the “Museum of War” in Saigon in Vietnam, etc. and so on. These observations and impressions convinced me more that “you have to search and everything will be found!” than the “scientific conclusions” of young scientists from genealogy and others like them.

Fortunately, the majority of people on the planet do not believe that all people on Earth are relatives, at least in the last 15 generations this has not been proven. That is why, probably, through the works of many researchers of the origin and distribution of the surname, the science of onomastics was created. What is onomastics? Does it stand alone or is it part of some kind of science?

ONOMASTICS - the science of proper names, consisting of two parts - anthroponymy (names, surnames, nicknames of people) and place names (geographical names). …..Formally, it is believed that onomastics is a branch of linguistics, and in fact the main problems in it are of a linguistic nature. In addition, onomastics is at the intersection of two more humanitarian disciplines:

• Stories, since first and last names were assigned to representatives different nations lived in different times historical time in different places on the planet. Over time, due to migration, wars, and regroupings of nations, names and surnames also changed.
• Epistemology- a branch of philosophy that studies the methodology of searching for scientific truth.

You can give enough a large number of books on onomastics, not counting dictionaries of surnames, but for our research a few that touch on surnames are enough Slavic peoples and some European ones. Of particular note are the works on the onomastics of Jewish surnames, which we will also need to study, probably, since we are invading territories in which, along with Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian surnames Jewish ones are also widespread. The “Bookshelf” of our website contains several articles by famous scientists in the field of onomastics, whose works we will use to study the place and time of origin of our surname “Tsuprik”.

But - studying the origin of the surname is only part of our big task!

Maybe no less, but more important part - building our family tree from living bearers of our surname back to the depths of centuries! After all, this is perhaps a more reliable way of knowledge not only the time and place of the appearance of our surname, but also its meaning! And this is the science of genealogy.

GENEALOGY, or genealogy (ancient Greek γενεαλογία - genealogy, from γενεά (genea) - “family” and λόγος (logos) - “word, knowledge”) - a systematic collection of information about the origin, succession and kinship of surnames and clans; in more in a broad sense- the science of family ties in general [Wikipedia].

Genealogy is an auxiliary historical discipline (applied historical discipline) and deals with the study of family relationships of people, the history of childbirth, the origin of individuals, the establishment family ties, compiling generational lists and family trees. Genealogy is related to heraldry, diplomacy and many other historical disciplines. Below are the most common options for depicting the “family tree” of a surname (family), but there are many different options! We also have our own options.

Below in the figure, taken, like the previous ones, from a genealogy website, you can clearly see how these relatives are distributed “around a person.” In the center is the person for whom the genealogy is being compiled, then the circle is divided in half, in one half the ancestors are on the paternal side, in the other - on the maternal side. This depiction of a genealogy is called a circular (circular) table. Circular tables are only ascending and were used in English and French genealogy.

Some constructions of pedigrees of individual branches of the clan Tsuprikov you can look on our website on the “Genealogy” page. We are waiting and hoping that you will be able to build a pedigree for your own branch of the family; we are even confident that your branch will definitely find that place on the general family tree Tsuprikov, where it originally grew from - we just haven’t found out about it yet.

Friends, remember that Genealogy - this is not a hobby, this is a common sense view of history, and origin of the surname- this is part of our past, this is the history of the family name, and, therefore, the history of our ancestors, the history of our family. And we believe that getting in touch with the history and origin of a family name is taking a step towards understanding one’s family, towards preserving the pedigree of one’s family. Therefore, our site is for those who have ancestors, and it is not at all necessary that they were the Tsupryks!

In a conversation you can come across the following statement: “Here, his last name ends with -in, which means he is a Jew.” Are Susanin, Repin and even Pushkin really Jewish surnames? It’s some kind of strange idea among the people, where did it come from? After all, the suffix -in- is often found in possessive adjectives formed from first declension nouns: cat, mother. While adjectives from words of the second declension are formed using the suffix -ov-: grandfathers, crocodiles. Is it really true that only Jews chose words of the first declension as the basis for their surname? It would be very strange. But probably everything that is on people’s tongues has some basis, even if it has been distorted over time. Let's figure out how to determine nationality by last name.

Ending or suffix?

Calling the familiar -ov/-ev endings is not entirely correct. The ending in Russian is the variable part of the word. Let's see what inclines in surnames: Ivanov - Ivanova - Ivanov. It can be concluded that -ov is a suffix and is followed by a zero ending, as in most masculine nouns. And only in cases or when changing gender and number (Ivanova, Ivanovy) endings are heard. But there is also a folk, and not linguistic, concept of “ending” - what it ends with. In that case, this word is applicable here. And then we can safely determine the ending of surnames by nationality!

Russian surnames

The range of Russian surnames is much wider than those ending in -ov. They are characterized by the suffixes -in, -yn, -ov, -ev, -skoy, -tskoy, -ih, -yh (Lapin, Ptitsyn, Sokolov, Soloviev, Donskoy, Trubetskoy, Moskovskikh, Sedykh).

There are actually as many as 60-70% of Russian surnames with -ov, -ev, but only about 30% with -in, -yn, which is also quite a lot. What is the reason for this ratio? As already mentioned, the suffixes -ov, -ev are added to second declension nouns, most of which are masculine. And since in Russian surnames often originate from the name or occupation of the father (Ivanov, Bondarev), such a suffix is ​​very logical. But there is also male names, ending in -a, -ya, and it was from them that the surnames Ilyin and Nikitin arose, the Russianness of which we have no doubt.

What about Ukrainians?

Ukrainian ones are usually formed using the suffixes -enko, -ko, -uk, -yuk. And also without suffixes from words denoting professions (Korolenko, Spirko, Govoruk, Prizhnyuk, Bondar).

More about Jews

Jewish surnames are very diverse, because Jews have been scattered throughout the world for centuries. A sure sign of them can be the suffixes -ich, -man and -er. But even here confusion is possible. Family endings -ich, -ovich, -evich are characteristic of the Poles and Slavic peoples living in East Germany. For example, one of famous poets in Poland - Mickiewicz.

But the basis of the surname can sometimes immediately suggest Jewish origin its carrier. If the basis is Levi or Cohen/Cohan, the clan originates from the high priests - the Kohanim or his assistants - the Levites. So everything is clear with Levi, the Levitans, and the Kaganovichs.

What do surnames in -sky and -tsky tell you?

It is incorrect to assume that surnames ending in -sky or -tsky are necessarily Jewish. This stereotype developed because they were common in Poland and Ukraine. In these places there were many family estates; the surnames of the noble owners were formed from the name of the estate. For example, the ancestors of the famous revolutionary Dzerzhinsky owned the Dzerzhinovo estate on the territory of modern Belarus, and then Poland.

Many Jews lived in these areas, so many took local surnames. But Russian nobles also have such surnames, for example, noble surname Dubrovsky from Pushkin’s work is quite real. There is another interesting fact. In seminaries they often gave a surname derived from church holidays- Preobrazhensky, Rozhdestvensky. In this case, determining nationality by the end of surnames can lead to errors. Seminaries also served as the birthplace of surnames with a root unusual for the Russian ear, because they were formed from Latin words: Formozov, Kastorov. By the way, clerk Ivan Velosipedov served under Ivan the Terrible. But the bicycle had not yet been invented! How can it be that there is no object, but there is a surname? The solution was this: it turned out to be a tracing paper from the Latin “swift-footed”, only with the original Russian suffix.

Last name starting with -in: revealing the secret!

So what about ending your last name with -in? It is difficult to determine nationality on this basis. Indeed, some Jewish surnames end like this. It turns out that in some of them this is just an external coincidence with the Russian suffix. For example, Khazin descends from the modified surname Khazan - this is the name in Hebrew for one of the types of servants in the temple. Literally this translates as “overseer,” since the hazan monitored the order of worship and the accuracy of the text. You can guess where the surname Khazanov comes from. But she has the “most Russian” suffix -ov!

But there are also matronyms, that is, those that are formed on behalf of the mother. Moreover, the female names from which they were formed were not Russian. For example, the Jewish surname Belkin is a homonym for a Russian surname. It was formed not from a furry animal, but from female name Beila.

German or Jew?

Another interesting pattern has been noticed. As soon as we hear surnames like Rosenfeld, Morgenstern, we immediately confidently determine the nationality of its bearer. Definitely, this is a Jew! But not everything is so simple! After all, these are words German origin. For example, Rosenfeld is a “field of roses”. How did this happen? It turns out that on the territory of the German Empire, as well as in the Russian and Austrian Empire, there was a decree on assigning surnames to Jews. Of course, they were formed in the language of the country in which the Jew lived. Since they were not transmitted from distant ancestors from time immemorial, people chose them themselves. Sometimes this choice could be made by the registrar. This is how many artificial, bizarre surnames appeared that could not have arisen naturally.

How then can one distinguish a Jew from a German if both have German surnames? This is difficult to do. Therefore, here you should not be guided only by the origin of the word, you need to know the pedigree of a particular person. Here, you can’t just determine nationality by the end of your last name!

Georgian surnames

For Georgians, it is not difficult to guess the ending of their last names by nationality. If the Georgian is most likely -shvili, -dze, -uri, -ava, -a, -ua, -ia, -ni, -li, -si (Basilashvili, Svanidze, Pirtskhalava, Adamia, Gelovani, Tsereteli). There are also Georgian surnames, which end in -tskaya. This is consonant with Russian (Trubetskaya), but this is not a suffix, and they not only do not change by gender (Diana Gurtskaya - Robert Gurtskaya), but also do not decline by case (with Diana Gurtskaya).

Ossetian surnames

Ossetian surnames are characterized by the ending -ty/-ti (Kokoyty). The ending of the surname in -ev (Abaev, Eziev) is also typical for this nationality; it is usually preceded by a vowel. Often the basis of a word is not clear to us. But sometimes it can turn out to be homonymous or almost homonymous with a Russian word, which is confusing. Among them there are also those that end in -ov: Botov, Bekurov. In fact, these are real Russian suffixes, and they are attached to the Ossetian root according to the tradition of conveying surnames in writing. These are the fruits of the Russification of Ossetian surnames. At the same time, it is stupid to think that all surnames ending in -ev are Ossetian. The ending of a surname with -ev does not determine nationality. Surnames such as Grigoriev, Polev, Gostev are Russian and they differ from similar ones ending in -ov only in that the last consonant in the noun was soft.

A few words about Armenians

Armenian surnames often end in -yan or -yants (Hakopyan, Grigoryants). Actually, -yan is a truncated -yants, which meant belonging to a clan.

Now you know how to find out your nationality by the end of your last name. Yes, it is not always easy to do this with guaranteed accuracy, even with a developed linguistic sense. But as they say, the main thing is that the person is good!

Many are interested in finding out how their surname came about, the secret of which is hidden behind the antiquity of years. By visiting our website, you can find out the origin of the surname in general, and also find out how it appeared in Rus'.

Why look for the origin of a surname?

For a person, the surname plays an important role, which is comparable to the name and date of birth. Human character and destiny are influenced by the history of the family name, as the wheel of fortune turns in different directions, driven by family vibrations and energy.

Are you interested in the history of its origin and want to remove the veil of mystery? Do you want to know what exactly your last name means? Or maybe you want to find out where your family's ancestral roots came from?

By contacting us, you can find out all the secrets concerning your family’s family tree. If you have to change your last name, then you need to keep in mind that this can radically change your fate. Our experts will help you determine the history of the origin of your family’s ancestral roots different ways, and also find out what secret is hidden from you.

What does a pedigree search allow you to do? You will be able to find out:

• your family history;
• what characteristic features your family possessed;
• where did the ancestors live?
• what they did and were interested in;
• Where live distant relatives, with whom communication has been lost;
• all information about ancestors;
• which family traditions and legends exist in the family.

What does the surname mean and when was it formed?

When a person is born, he is given a name, but the surname is inherited. Our names are chosen by our fathers and mothers, and our ancestors (great-grandfathers and grandfathers) became the people from whom our surnames originated. Who was your ancestor? What secrets does the surname hide? Maybe your ancestors were noble people, but you don’t know about it yet, since after the revolution it was not customary to openly talk about your noble origins.

Therefore, the history of the origin of the surname is now considered very hot topic for all citizens not only of the Russian Federation, but also of the world. We will help you solve the mystery of your surname, its formation and distribution throughout the earth.

The word "surname" is of ancient Roman origin, according to many researchers. They claim that another concept was hidden behind this word. So the residents Ancient Rome called a group of people, a community, which included people belonging to a rich and respected class, as well as their slaves.

The unification of people and their formation into certain group communities occurred thanks to the word Familia, even with this meaning. A simple solution to any financial and political issues in the territory big state took place based on this definition. In addition, the lower strata of the population were easily controlled.

When the Great Roman Empire collapsed, information about surnames was hidden under cover of secrecy for many centuries. How did the formation of surnames proceed in the Middle Ages?

Let's look at the history of this phenomenon by country:

1. The terminology becomes widespread in various Italian regions only at the end of the 10th century. The country was at that time the most powerful and influential European power. What is the reason for this? Scientists are still hotly arguing about this. The emergence of the institution of inheritance in Italy is the most plausible and reasonable variation of the answer to the question of the origin of the surname. This is due to the fact that borders began to expand and citizens of neighboring countries began to communicate closely. The surnames could also have arisen due to the political claims of Italy, which considered itself the most powerful state, and therefore wanted citizens of other countries to obey its subjects.
2. After some time, the French residents also picked up new trend , was created whole line special institutions that specialized in compiling pedigrees. In those days, this service was provided only by wealthy noble families.
3. Surname adoption continued in England large quantity time. The end of this process occurs in the 15th century. In remote Scottish and Welsh regions, the formation of surnames continued for many more decades.
4. Citizens of Germany, Denmark and Sweden established their own family institutions at the end of the 16th century, as they were forced to play the game according to general rules, because in that time period a person who did not have a last name was considered an inferior member of society.
5. Authorities of Central European States a definition such as “surname” was forcibly introduced. But after some time, people quickly seized on new opportunities, although for several centuries the surname had only a nominal designation.

Surnames became widespread at the end of the 18th century.

What does the meaning of surnames depend on?

It is difficult to overestimate what a surname means to a person. From the time a child enters the 1st grade of school, they no longer call him simply Katya, Sasha or Sonya, but also begin to call him Volkova, Belov, Romanova. This important “gain” becomes the starting point that leads to human maturation. The differentiation of people by surname has been happening since this time. The exception is close relatives, friends and acquaintances.

The first impression about a person comes from their last name. For example, hearing a surname, you can almost accurately determine the nationality of its bearer. If you know the meaning of a surname, you can gain a lot of knowledge about your ancestors and ancestors. Where a person lived, whether he was tall or small, noisy or quiet, his occupation can be determined by his last name. The root of the surname is hidden in the personal name or nickname, professional skills, and place of residence.

History of the origin of the surname in Rus'

Surnames in Rus' began to appear in the 12th-13th centuries. This process became widespread in the 16th century, and its completion occurred at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Experts can determine for certain where this or that surname came from, but they distinguish several variations that unite several hundred surnames.

Nicknames led to the origin of the surname:

1. Begin to form at the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. The names of the parents, where the person was born, and what he did were contained in the root part of the resulting word. What can be observed in family ending–ich or –ov. For example, Petrovich, Popov.
2. During the 14-15 century period, numerous boyar and noble families began to be named. It was during this time period that the appearance of noble family names occurred: Shuiskys, Gorbatovs, Travins, Trusovs, Kobylins.
3. At the same time, surnames appeared, derived from nicknames, which are characterized negative traits appearance or character. For example, Kosoy, Krivosheev and others.
4. Peasant surnames begin their formation from family nicknames. For example, Lyubimov, Zhdanov.
5. Since ancient times, the name has been considered a kind of amulet that guides a person’s destiny in the right direction.. Therefore, surnames came from given names in order to correct human karma. For example, from the name Nekras the Nekrasov family appeared, Golod - the Golodovs.
6. Surnames derived from the father's name have become widespread. For example, the descendant of Vasily began to be called Vasilyev, the descendant of Peter - Petrov, the descendant of Sidor - Sidorov.

Close contact between Western and Eastern countries, which occurred towards the end of the 15th century, served as the beginning of the formation foreign names. At the same time, Turkic borrowings occurred in Rus'. Similar surnames appeared until the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, the tribal communities of the Yusupovs, Karamzins, and Baskakovs arose.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great introduced “travelling letters” indicating the first and last name (or nickname), that is, from now on, almost everyone living in Russian territories there was a surname, albeit unofficially. But similar phenomenon was widespread only in the central Russian regions. On the outskirts, citizens did not have a last name until the mid-30s of the 20th century, when residents of the country began to be given passports.

What a person did and where he lived also contributed to the appearance of the surname. In the 16th-19th centuries, surnames appeared based on what a person did. This is how the Rybins, Kovalevs, and Goncharovs appeared. Surnames appear according to the place where the person was born or lived in this moment. In particular, many surnames appeared at the moment when the lands beyond the Ural Mountains were settled. For example, the Ustyugovs, Verkhoturtsevs.

Among the clergy, the appearance of surnames occurred in the mid-18th century.

Their education often depended on which parish or church the priest served in. For example, Pokrovsky, Kosmodemyansky, Blagoveshchensky and others. Until this time, they were called Father Vasily, Father or Priest Ivan. Their children were called Popovs when necessary. Some clergy acquired surnames when they graduated from the seminary.

They became Athenian, Palminovsky, Cypress, Myagkovsky, Gilyarovsky. If students excelled in their studies, they received euphonious surnames with a positive connotation. They were called Brilliantovs, Dobromyslovs, Speranskys, Dobrolyubovs. If a student received bad grades, then he received a dissonant surname. For example, it was called Gibraltar. In addition, the student could receive a surname that was formed on behalf of a negative biblical character, including he could be called Saulov, Pharaoh.

How to find out the history of your surname: simple and professional ways

First, each person can make an attempt to find his roots. Parents, grandparents and other older relatives can help you with this matter. You can write down all the data on your ancestors in a notepad. You can find out about relatives on both the maternal and paternal side. When a large amount of information has been accumulated, you can put everything on a piece of Whatman paper.

In the upper part, indicate the data that you were able to find out by first names, patronymics, and last names, indicating when they were born and where their oldest ancestors lived. In addition, it is worth recording the number of marriages of the grandparents with the names of their wives and husbands, as well as the number of children they have and the dates of their birth.

The type of activity of your ancestors will provide a lot of information. For example, your ancestor was a shoemaker, so you are Sapozhnikov. Or there was a service person in the family, so you, for example, are Bombardiers. If your ancestor was a fisherman, then now you are called Sturgeon. Or maybe you are the bearer of a family trait, obtained due to the peculiarity of your appearance, which is why you began to be called Ears, Nosovs.

If there is insufficient information collected from relatives, you can turn to the World Wide Web. On various sites you can find out the essence of the origin of your family name. If resources ask you to enter any amount of money, this may lead to funds being withdrawn from you, and no assistance will be provided. On our website you can find out where your family branch came from. Here you can find distant relatives; by writing a message to them, you can find out information about where the family began.

Our experts will help you find out everything about rare family data. Having previously learned information from historical and archival information, our employees will professionally compile family tree.

Professional research into the origin of the surname

If your independent searches could not help you find out the history of the origin of the surname, feel free to contact our specialists who will help resolve all your questions regarding this problem.

We provide the following services:

1. At the first stage, professionals will be able to verify all the data you have collected by talking with your relatives, as well as filling in the missing information. This stage is carried out within 2 to 4 weeks.
2. At the same time as the first stage, specialists systematize the information received, enter the data into a special program and build a prototype family tree.
3. Conducting a genealogical examination of the information received, including DNA, during which it is determined whether there is enough information for research, as well as where to find the missing data. This stage takes place over a 2-4 week period.
4. Searching for information in archives.
5. Analysis of the information received and drawing up an estimate.
6. Drawing up reporting information, as well as creating a family tree with subsequent registration of the results of the work performed. This stage takes place within 2-3 months.

How to use the information

After receiving and processing all the information by our specialists, a report can be presented in the form:

• compiled family tree;
• compiled genealogy book;
• a movie about the history of the origin of your family's name.

Let's look at each point in more detail.

Compiling a family tree

In our company, a family tree of a surname can be ordered in the form of paintings, diagrams, panels, as well as shezhere. The customer can decide how the report should look. It can be depicted schematically, drawn on canvas, or carved into wooden board and look like a panel. In addition, the coat of arms, local attractions, cartographic fragments, photographs can be presented, and the report can also be decorated with various ornaments.

If the client wishes, LED lighting can be installed inside the frame. All materials undergo processing to prevent their premature failure. A family tree can be kept in your family for a long time.

Compiling a genealogy book

All collected information can be formatted as a genealogy book. In addition to information about the surname, it will contain family legends, family traditions, documentary photocopies, as well as photographs covering the history of the origin of the surname.

This book, which includes the most precious information, will be an invaluable encyclopedic storehouse of knowledge passed on from generation to generation.

Making a film about the history of the origin of your family's name

For every family, a film in which all its members play the main roles is important. Our company can offer a film based on events that actually happened to you and your family.

We offer documentary films in the form of:

• family portrait film;
• dedication to one person or a married couple;
• a movie that explores the essence of the origin of the surname;
• narratives about the hard times of war or about events occurring in the hero’s childhood;
• a fascinating genre documentary story covering the events that happened to the hero;
• documentary reconstruction of past events;
• modern life events.

During the work on the film, professionals will be involved. The film will be shot by directors, screenwriters, cameramen, editors, sound engineers, composers and recorded on media of the High Quality. The finished masterpiece will be recorded onto your hard drive. Your personal life will become a source for filming an exciting, exclusive film.

Full value of family pedigree

Before all work is carried out, our specialists will be able to calculate the full cost of the services provided. Conducting a genealogical examination costs 95 thousand rubles. If DNA examination is carried out by specialists, then its cost is 85 thousand rubles.

Contact our company, and in just 2-3 months you can find out all the information about the history of your family name!

Almost everyone eventually develops a desire to learn more about their family and ancestors. Who were they and what did they do, what memories did they leave about themselves? But, unfortunately, few can boast of a good knowledge of their ancestry. In the daily bustle, people have no time to listen to the stories of elderly family members about distant and, as it seems, completely unimportant things. After all, you need to work, raise children, do household chores. Where can one patiently listen to grandmother’s memories of people who have long been dead?

However, with age, almost every person develops a craving for their origins.

Search for roots. Where to begin?

So how can you find out the history of your ancestors? You can ask questions to older family members - they will tell you about their parents and grandparents. Elderly relatives will tell you much more than any archive, because they are living witnesses of history. It is better to record such memories on any medium or take notes, and only then systematize them.

Old photographs play an important role in restoring the history of one's ancestors. They are usually signed, and in this way you can find out what a relative looked like, with whom he communicated, and where he lived.

Diaries and letters must be collected. The stamp on the envelope may indicate where one of the ancestors worked or served, and the notes will help restore the chronology of events.

What can a surname tell you?

You can learn a lot about your ancestors by their last name. As a rule, she can tell about the origins of the family and indicate belonging to a certain class. U ordinary people, peasants and artisans, the surname was often formed from the name, profession, nickname or appearance, and among representatives of the nobility from the name of the family's possessions.

Special reference books contain information on Sometimes it can say a lot about its bearers, because it is not without reason that the main character traits inherent in the family were reflected on the family coats of arms and seals

Using archives

Unfortunately, not everyone has relatives from whom you can learn about their ancestors. The surname, either by accident or on purpose, can be significantly changed. Some members of the nobility could give their children truncated or changed surnames. Entries in church books are also sometimes erroneous. Therefore, for an accurate result you need to go to the archives.

In our country it has been going on since the 18th century. All important documents, such as marriage, birth and death certificates, were issued in two copies, one of which remained in the church, and the other was transferred to the depository.

Visiting the archive requires a lot of free time and painstaking work. Some of the departments are closed to regular visitors and can only be visited with special passes. The huge number of documents greatly complicates the task of reconstructing the history of the family. Those who do not have time to visit archives can turn to professionals for help.

But it is important to understand that before starting your search, you need to collect at least minimal data on your ancestors, find out both the last name and the year and place of birth. Without such information, even specialists are unlikely to be able to help.

Searching for relatives on the Internet

Some archival data has now been translated into electronic view, and therefore more and more people are trying to find out about their ancestors on the Internet. By surname and place of birth, you can find the burial places of soldiers who died or went missing during the war, and clarify the fate of relatives if information about them was posted on the Internet. If there is no data on the Internet, but you know for sure that it is in the archive, then you can try to write a request there. It is important to understand here that some documents are still classified as secret, and no one can provide this information.

On specialized sites dedicated to genealogy, you can find many useful tips where to begin. Recommendations will help you understand the confusing terminology of kinship, tell you what information and where to look, teach you how to systematize the data received, and based on it, correctly compile a family tree.

Drawing up a pedigree

All the papers and photographs found, collected in one pile, have an unattractive appearance. Therefore all known information you need to systematize about your ancestors. A generally accepted method is to compile a family tree, which represents a diagram of all family ties.

Exist certain rules design: the roots of the tree are the oldest representatives of the genus, the trunk is the main representatives, the branches are the descendants. Sometimes there is an opposite arrangement of family ties.

When compiling a family tree, it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of inheritance of the family. IN Russian families it was transmitted only through the male line, and if there were no children in the family or only girls appeared, then the family was considered interrupted.

You can compose it yourself or turn to specialists for help. It will be a real gift for anyone family celebration and will be passed on from generation to generation, acquiring new descendant branches.

Moscow was not built in a day…

Compiling a pedigree is a painstaking task that requires a lot of time and a great desire to understand the history of one’s ancestors. As practice shows, not everything can be recognized by a surname, because it could have undergone various changes or been lost for several generations.

Another difficulty is that much information was lost or deliberately destroyed in the whirlwind of bloody events of the 20th century. Revolution and wars that cost millions human lives, hundreds of thousands of children who find themselves in orphanages after the loss of their parents, and sometimes do not even know or remember their family - all this is a serious obstacle to establishing genealogical roots.

Great desire, patience and meticulousness are indispensable in this difficult task. Many people give up what they started in the middle, unable to wade through the intricacies of family ties, a huge amount of documents and information. But when the information collected bit by bit with difficulty begins to take shape, this becomes the best incentive to continue such a great cause as restoring the history of one’s Family.

IN Russian Federation Every 10th marriage is mixed. This is due to demographic reasons and fashion trend enter into an alliance with a foreign citizen. They are often legitimized between Russians and visiting students. But such mixed marriages often doomed to a short existence. As a result, owners of a “specific” surname may not always know their true roots, especially if the parents categorically do not want to raise the topic of kinship.

You can find out nationality by last name. But this is a painstaking and long process that is best left to specialists. However, the origins can be established according to general rules.

History of the surname

In past centuries, only aristocrats had a pedigree. To the common people you were not supposed to know your origin, and therefore have a surname. Only during the reign of Vasily the First did peasants begin to receive nicknames that resembled their real name: Semyon Cherny, monk Rublev and others.

Studying the pedigree is of great importance. It not only allows you to find out how to determine nationality by surname, but also conveys the historical past.

Since ancient times, the official surname served to identify a person and his family. Many marriages were and are of an interethnic nature. The surname allows you to establish the degree of relationship, because it takes into account not only language features, but also a territorial feature with historical factors.

How to carry out the analysis?

To determine a person’s nationality by last name, you should remember the Russian language school course. A word consists of a root, a suffix and an ending. allow you to calculate the first two points.

1. In the surname you need to highlight the root and suffix.
2. Determine nationality using suffixes.
3. If this is not enough, analyze the root of the word.
4. Rate the name according to the degree of its origins in Europe.

In many surnames, not only the morphological features of the word are taken into account, but also the person’s belonging to certain group: by specialty, personal qualities, name of animal or bird.

Establishing nationality by suffixes and root words

Belonging to Ukrainian origins is confirmed by the presence of suffixes:

• enko;
• eiko;
• point;
• ovskiy

Finding out the nationality of people with Jewish roots by last name is not so easy. Its origin is influenced by many factors.

The surname can be based on the name of a profession, animal or bird. For example, Bondar, Gonchar are Ukrainian designations for a working specialty. Gorobets is a sparrow in Ukrainian. It’s just that later this word was transformed into a surname.

You can often see surnames consisting of two words, such as Ryabokon, Krivonos and others. They indicate the presence of Slavic roots: Belarusian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian.

How to determine Jewish roots

The suffix and root of a word do not always help determine nationality by surname. This also applies to Jewish origins. To establish kinship, there are 2 large groups:

• The roots are "Cohen" and "Levi".
• Male names.

The roots “Cohen” and “Levi” indicate that the owner of the surname belongs to Jews whose ancestors had the rank of clergy. Among them you can find the following: Kogan, Kagansky, Kaplan, Levita, Levitin, Levitan.

The second group contains male names. These include the names Solomon, Moses and others.

The Jewish people have one peculiarity: during prayer, a person is called by his mother’s name. And nationality here is also given on the maternal side. This one is interesting historical fact led to the formation of surnames that are based on the feminine gender. Among them are Sorinson, Rivkin, Tsivyan, Beilis.

And the working specialty can answer the question of how to determine nationality by last name. This also applies to Jewish roots. For example, the surname Fain translated from Hebrew means “beautiful” and characterizes a person’s appearance. And Rabin means “rabbi”, that is, professional activity.

European roots

In Russia you can often find English, French, and German origins. Certain rules of word formation help to recognize a specific nationality by last name.

French origin is confirmed by the presence of the prefixes De or Le in the surname.

German were formed in three ways:

• on behalf of personal names - Walter, Peters, Werner, Hartmann;
• from nicknames (for example, Klein);
• associated with a specific profession (the most common is Schmidt).

Surnames English origin also have several ways of education:

• depending on place of residence - Scott, English, Irish, Welsh, Wallace;
• from professional activity human - Spooners, Carver, Butler;
• taking into account human qualities- Bad, Sweet, Good, Moody, Bragg.

A separate group is formed Polish surnames: Kowalczyk, Sienkiewicz, Novak. As a rule, they have the suffixes -chik, -vich, -vak.

Lithuanian surnames have the suffixes -kas, -kene, -kaite, -chus, -chene, -chite.

Features of Eastern origins

The formation of a surname is influenced by several factors:

• territorial affiliation of ancestors;
• occupation;
• personal human characteristics;
• morphological components of a word.

IN eastern countries To find out whose last name is by nationality, you need to analyze its suffixes and endings.

Chinese and korean surnames monosyllabic and short. The most typical of them are Xing, Xiao, Jiu, Layu, Kim, Dam, Chen.

Muslims have surnames with suffixes ending in -ov, -ev (Aliev, Aushev, Khasbulatov, Dudayev and others). Among the Armenian people they end in -yan (Shiyan, Bordiyan, Porkuyan).

They have “incomparable” suffixes and endings: -shvili, -dze, -uri, -uli, -ani(ya), -eti(ya), -eni, -eli(ya).

All of the above features allow us to find the true roots. But only a specialist can tell you exactly how to find out nationality by last name. Sometimes this requires a detailed analysis that takes into account many factors. A person is inextricably linked with his name, and it can really tell a lot about him and his ancestry.