The Huish Clan, can anybody help me.

[Big Homestead]

It seems that you are trying to establish two contradictory genealogies, both of which have their own internal problems. One originates in Normandy and continues in southern England (and is unlikely due to the reasons set out in my earlier post.)

The other would originate in the Scottish Highlands, and is also problematic, as others have pointed out.

You really can't have it both ways.

This is an example of why I don't have the patience I should with false genealogies, and those who invent them and pass them on. If one wants to believe fanciful things about one's ancestors, that is one thing. If one passes them on to unsuspecting people, that is another, and is the unforgivable sin of genealogists. After doing geneaological research for some years, one finds oneself spending much more time plowing through other people's BS than in doing original work.

Hence digging out as much as I can. I would greatly love to know simply where it all began. As far as conflicting angles go, I think when your dealing with information that is based on another's facts, you need to eat the meat and spit out the bones.

I know that somehow my family has clung to the French, Welsh, Scot, English connections, and it has become apparent that there is a great deal to that. So now its mearly a matter of sifting through what sticks and what doesn't

Do I think Richard Hywish left a crap load of money to a bunch of charities when he died and they now bear his name? Yes.

Do I know his pedigree is accurate and factual? No.

This all very new to me. Canadian families a lot of the time have basically had their fore fathers deny their roots as being "not important" and hence why very few Canadians know about their heritage. Which is why I am so thankful for all the people with some UK knowledge willing to help me out.

Basically, Canadians don't know much about the UK and vise versa unless they've been there. Somersets history is all new to me. People lying about ancestry is pretty new to me too, because it's importance to most Canadians is of minimal value. So, if there are conflicting pathways regarding information , I appreciate you pointing it out.

Myself, I think it is crucially important to understand where you come from. This digging will become a gift to my children and to theirs; that they will understand what our blood lines have lived for, longed for, fought for and died for. A sense of identity to a rather rootless generation.

My want to perpetuate a falsity is none existent, my want to find and preserve where we come from is.

Cheers

[slohairt]

This is clutching at straws a bit, but if the name has any Scottish connexion then it could be affiliated to MacDonald. There are a few MacDonald septs like MacHugh, Hewison and Houston which have the same element (although these I think derive from a MacDonald called Hugh). Also the name Huie is given in 'Scots Kith and Kin' as a sept of Clan MacLean, who's lands were close to MacDonald teritory. Of course it would be impossible for books like this to list all the names in Scotland, and many names would have become corrupted into all sorts of forms over the centuries. Also, when Highlanders migrated down to the lowlands, clerks would often spell them phonetically, and I can just imagine a Highlander giving his name as "MacHuish", and this name, like so many others, becoming a 'lost mac' name over time to become Huish.
However, from all the evidence unearthed by our fellow X markers, it does seem that the most likely explanation is that it has Cornish roots.

Names like M(a)cHugh, Hewison, Hewson, etc. were anglicised from Mac Aoidh (MAC EE). This came about from a mistaken connection between the Gaelic name Aodh (meaning "fire") and the Norman-French Hugh. It was considered an "equivalent" though it obviously it is not.

[Big Homestead]

This is clutching at straws a bit, but if the name has any Scottish connexion then it could be affiliated to MacDonald. There are a few MacDonald septs like MacHugh, Hewison and Houston which have the same element (although these I think derive from a MacDonald called Hugh). Also the name Huie is given in 'Scots Kith and Kin' as a sept of Clan MacLean, who's lands were close to MacDonald teritory. Of course it would be impossible for books like this to list all the names in Scotland, and many names would have become corrupted into all sorts of forms over the centuries. Also, when Highlanders migrated down to the lowlands, clerks would often spell them phonetically, and I can just imagine a Highlander giving his name as "MacHuish", and this name, like so many others, becoming a 'lost mac' name over time to become Huish.
However, from all the evidence unearthed by our fellow X markers, it does seem that the most likely explanation is that it has Cornish roots.

Thank you.

[Big Homestead]

Names like M(a)cHugh, Hewison, Hewson, etc. were anglicised from Mac Aoidh (MAC EE). This came about from a mistaken connection between the Gaelic name Aodh (meaning "fire") and the Norman-French Hugh. It was considered an "equivalent" though it obviously it is not.

I can say I am astonished on some levels on how informed you guys are. Thank you!

I would have never even thought of that. I hope I get to return the favor to someone someday.

Cheer!

[sirdaniel1975]

Big Homestead,

I have an account with www.ancestry.co.uk and have performed a general search for the name Huish. I found census records from 1841 - 1901 and early phone book records with the surname Huish.

There were a good amount of hits for Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen (has the most) Dumfries....

Though I did a Scotland search, some hits for England showed up as well.

[Big Homestead]

Big Homestead,

I have an account with www.ancestry.co.uk and have performed a general search for the name Huish. I found census records from 1841 - 1901 and early phone book records with the surname Huish.

There were a good amount of hits for Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen (has the most) Dumfries....

Though I did a Scotland search, some hits for England showed up as well.

Thank you for the kind gesture. That certainly explains where my uncles get the Scot twist in all of this. Thank you again so much.

Cheers!

[slohairt]

Best of luck with the continued search!

[gilmore]

Hence digging out as much as I can. I would greatly love to know simply where it all began. As far as conflicting angles go, I think when your dealing with information that is based on another's facts, you need to eat the meat and spit out the bones. ...

That's very true. I have a cousin who says that he never accepts anything as a fact until he can hold the original document in his hands---and even then there are sometimes misrepresentations.

The further back we go, the more we rely on secondary and tertiary sources, unfortunately, and the more time we spend digging through information that isn't as accurate as we would like.

The only way to be sure is to go back one generation at a time, starting with one's parents, checking the info that you have against sources that are as close to the original as you can get. It is a slow, labor-intensive process, but it is more reliable.

On the bright side, genealogical resources are much more easily available than they were a few years ago. No more hours spent in musty courthouses.

A word of warning: trying to take short cuts doesn't work very well. For example, there may be a well-researched line going from, say, 100 to 300 years ago, but the nearer end of the line's connection to what you have established may not be solid. If you start off researching the more distant beginning of that line, spend a couple of years, and work out where it came from, only to then discover that they are not your people at all, it can be very disappointing.

It's like building a house with a solid foundation, and then building each story sturdily on top of the lower one, so that it doesn't all come crashing down around you.

[ccga3359]

Best of luck with the continued search!

I'll echo this Big Homestead. Good luck and hope you find what you're looking for.

[Big Homestead]

Just found out today that it is either McHuish or MacHuish. When my great granfather came over see's he dropped the Mc or Mac for some reason.

Neat.