Genealogical Evidence and the Americanization of European Family Names

The purpose of this study is to compare the data on the Americanization of European family names presented in Hanks (2003) with the information that can currently be garnered from the plethora of genealogical websites that have sprung up in the recent past. The results show (1) that many of the origins he proposes fail to conform to the evidence found on those websites, and (2) that most of the surnames which he qualifies as "puzzling" or unexplained can be readily accounted for on the basis of this same type of evidence.