surname help

**Bryan** · 10th January 08, 09:39 PM

I'm looking for information on the surname Erwin. I can't seem to find any definitive source of the name, but I believe it is either Scottish or northern Irish. According to George F. Blacks The Surnames of Scotland:

"Irvine: of territorial origin, Irving in Dumfriesshire and Irvine in Ayrshire; the Dumfriesshire parish was the chief source of the name; the charter of the Barony of Drum dates from1324; an offshoot of the Aberdeenshire family appears in Shetland in the mid-1500s; in Northern Ireland, the name has become confused with the Irish Erwin."

Most other sources claim it is Scottish and one even said it's Welsh. Anyone have any ideas?

**gilmore** · 11th January 08, 01:49 AM

Surname Profiler here http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/Surnames.aspx says that Erwin is Irish, and shows a distribution in 1881 mostly in northern England. Erwine is not said to be Celtic and was also in northern England. Irwin is said to be English in origin, and is mostly in England with some in Scotland.

Family Tree DNA at www.ftdna.com has an Irwin surname project that says 80% of its testees have ancestry from the Scottish Borders. This does not mean that all Irwins are Scots, of course and applies to those who tested there.

It could even be German. Or Jewish.

The only ways to know with certainty about an individual person's ancestral country of origin are two: following the paper trail backward from the present to the past until you come to the immigrant who came to the US (if you are an American), or testing the Y chromosome DNA of a man and seeing the recent ancestral origins of those whose DNA matches yours. FTDNA has the largest database, and therefore is most likely to have matches or near matches.

**James MacMillan** · 11th January 08, 08:16 AM

The Y chromosome and DNA projects make for fantastice reading. What it shows me, is that we are all related, we are all cousins, we are all one family. And like most families, we fight a lot.

**Bryan** · 11th January 08, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by gilmore

...following the paper trail backward from the present to the past until you come to the immigrant who came to the US (if you are an American)...

Farthest back I've been able to go in that branch of my family is 1761 in Tennessee. There, unfortunately for the time being, the "paper trail" abruptly ends.

**Mael Coluim** · 11th January 08, 08:58 PM

Yep, in fact to quote, Family Tree, "We all descend from one single person ..." To read the rest click here.

Originally Posted by James MacMillan

The Y chromosome and DNA projects make for fantastice reading. What it shows me, is that we are all related, we are all cousins, we are all one family. And like most families, we fight a lot.

**TheKiltedWonder** · 11th January 08, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by Bryan

Farthest back I've been able to go in that branch of my family is 1761 in Tennessee. There, unfortunately for the time being, the "paper trail" abruptly ends.

Or starts(!) depending upon your point of view.

good luck finding out more!

**Bryan** · 11th January 08, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by TheKiltedWonder

Or starts(!) depending upon your point of view.

good luck finding out more!

Good point.

**SteveB** · 11th January 08, 11:25 PM

Is he the John Erwin b: 1755 Giles, Tennessee? Possibly related to Col. Robert Erwin of Tennessee and Virginia?
??? Steve

**SteveB** · 11th January 08, 11:27 PM

Bryan,
Is this the John Erwin b:1755 living in Giles, Tennessee? Or related to Col. Robert Erwin of Virginia and Tennessee???
--- Steve

**Bryan** · 12th January 08, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by SteveB

Bryan,
Is this the John Erwin b:1755 living in Giles, Tennessee? Or related to Col. Robert Erwin of Virginia and Tennessee???
--- Steve

His name is John, yes, but I have his birth year as 1761 (which may very well be wrong) and I just know he was from Tennessee. I'm not sure specifically what part of Tennessee. Why?