I was asked this morning why so many African Americans have Welsh surnames (Quincy Jones, Jesse Owens, Venus Williams, Serena Williams…)? Was it due to slavery solely or, was there other reasons? It seems Welsh names predominate in the Afro-American community. I found this link below but it would be interesting to see if SSiWers can offer any insight.
http://www.data-wales.co.uk/plantations.htm
2 Likes
Yes, in the US, many slaves took on their owners surnames. You also find a lot of Irish names among African-Americans.
1 Like
Having read more of the article, I think the author may be over thinking things. I found this list of the most common African-American surnames.
Welsh names are not that prominent. Another possibility is that some slaves may not have wanted their owners surname and after moving north may have picked a surname of someone they knew.
1 Like
Haven’t read the articles, but I once read a theory that many freed slaves might have chosen to borrow the surname of their favourite non-conformist minister.
3 Likes
I don’t have anything to cite, but I think it is established that Welsh surnames are overrepresented among African-Americans – a few, like Jones, very very overrepresented. I don’t know if the reason is settled.
I’ve seen two main theories, both having to do with how people picked what to be called after Emancipation, when they suddenly needed surnames. (1) People picked the names of their former slaveowners for the same kind of convenience-in-identification reasons that people in Wales get called Aran NameOfFarm or Iestyn NameOfVillage. (2) People wound up with surnames related to the names of their fathers (that is, the same way that people in Wales could have gone in a generation from being Dafydd ap Gwilym to Iwan Davidson). I don’t find either of these quite convincing, independently, but maybe together they make some sense.
A personal side note: My surname is Owen. Many of the people I meet here who are named Owens are African American, but (I think) relatively few of the people named Owen. Isn’t that interesting?
3 Likes
Craig, I think the list in that article isn’t of most common African-American surname. It’s a list of names that have the greatest proportion of African Americans among all Americans who bear them. Because there are a lot of non-African Americans named Jones (for instance), Jones doesn’t appear.
Here’s a list that claims to be of the most common African-American surnames, and it rings true to me. Very interesting to see the column showing the name’s frequency among Americans of all races.
1 Like
Ah, I missed that subtly. Diolch
1 Like
I have my grandfathers last name . How was bethel moat blacks surname. I only know my grandfather was not from the US of A. I just took a ancestry test. I hope that help me. Come from a old generAtion. I dont know much. They barely talk anout things. Im 36 my my grandparents were born in the 20s. Three generations before me only one child born. Not enough info. I would like to represent my proper crest no matter how it was derived. I love my genes as well as my story
I am a transplanted Canadian from Llanelli, Wales.
From 1981 i noticed that Aboriginal peoples in Canada have a large amount of the more common Welsh surnames.
Thomas, Evans, Jones, Williams, Davies are very popular. I actually thought that whilst at golf tournaments in Southern Ontario the names being called out for 4somes were Welsh. Not so when I met them, all aboriginal peoples. This stuck in my mind and I had no idea as to why. Then I would notice more and more African Americans on tv for sports had the same names. Still to this day I have not satisfied my interest with anything like a confirmation as to how this has come about.
I have wondered if Welsh names were also given to us Welsh by same method Aboriginals and African Americans acquired them. After all, the castles in Wales were not for the Welsh owners, but the oppressors from east of what is now UK. And built by forced labour.
Could it be possible that missionaries gave names to all?
My research has come up with a basic fact that surnames came into a more general effect in the 1700s. this may suggest that the church may have had a lot to do with the registering of names. After all, this is where we go to find out ancestries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surname
I don’t have time to check this now, so please treat as hearsay than actual knowledge as such (and there are some wonderfully knowledgeable people on here who I’m sure will put me right if need be). But I have heard a story that there are so many Welsh people called ‘Jones’ and so forth because they were given these names by their unimaginative English employers once large-scale industrialisation started to come in (e.g. big slate mines up north, coal mines down south). This happened because (a) a lot of Welsh families didn’t use ‘surnames’ as such, instead using the ‘son of’ system (ap Gruffydd and so forth) or descriptive names (Sion y Mynnedd Du, or whatever), and (b) the English employers couldn’t (for which, of course, read 'couldn’t be bothered to try to) pronounce the names anyway. So yes - a distinct similarity (if it’s true!)
1 Like
I have certainly come across this too! The bosses wanted surnames because they wanted to know who was related to whom and didn’t understand that the ‘ap’ system told them that! They wanted to call workers by their surname because that was ‘how things were done’! (You called your boss, 'Mr. surname, your friend by his Christian name. Mr. Jones, Dai, Jones!)
Fixed surnames were on their way out long, long before that. There were several factors, but chief among them was the need to register land for taxation/tithing purposes. In ancient Welsh law, ancestry (which was documented by the patronymic system) was important for tracing rights to land holdings, but with the absorption of Wales into England in Tudor times, English law prevailed, which emphasised fixed surnames and written rolls, deeds and contracts. By the early nineteenth century and mass industrialisation, only isolated rural districts were still using the patronymic tradition.
5 Likes
The answer to your question is that Welsh Quaker families that were conductors along the routes of the Underground Railroad gave the run-away slaves their family names. New names, new life and names of Friends not their former masters. My Jones ancestors were conductors at their farm station 6 miles northwest of Marion Indiana. Iechyd da!
2 Likes
A large portion of the Welsh population were brought up in the Welsh Congregationalist religion. Their doctrine specifically was completely against slavery. When Welsh folks emigrated to the US, they sometimes became part of the Underground Railroad, offering shelter to runaway slaves. Some believe that African Americans took on the surnames of the folks that helped them get to the north and become free. - Steve (my 2nd great grandfather was born in Wales)
3 Likes