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| LIFE IN SOLERA | SEPTEMBER 2023 | 41 SURNAMES PART II Last month's article on surnames focused mainly on how surnames came to be and mostly European surnames. This article gives you some additional surname conventions for Oriental and Spanish surnames, as well as some additional surname information. Oriental surnames are very different because the surname (family name) is at the beginning of a person's name. for example, 'Xi Jinping''s family name (surname) is 'Xi'. This convention is used in many Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, some parts of India, and some other Oriental cultures. Another large group that uses a different surname convention are Spanish families. The combine both the surnames of the male and female parent as the name for their children. For example, if Jose Garcia Torres marries Maria Lopez Acosta, their child would have the following surname convention: (child's first name) Garcia Acosta and generally go by the surname Garcia. However, on some occasions a 'y' is placed between the father's surname and mother's surname or sometimes 'de' or 'de la' is placed there. However, this convention sometimes can help in determining a Spanish surnamed person's ancestor's surname. An interesting sidelight to surnames is the surnames of emancipated slaves. On many occasions, as slaves were freed they were only known by one name as a slave. As a result, many of the freed slaves adopted their previous owner's surname as their surname. Gender specific surnames also occur. As you may recall in last month's article, Scandinavian surnames are gender specific with the use of 'son' or 'dottir' after a father's first name. Another gender- specific way to change a surname for a male or female is to add to the end of a surname a designation for a male or female. For example, in Polish surnames a male surname will end with 'ski' and a female with 'ska'. As you can see, a surname can be very useful in determining a person's ancestor or gender in various cases. I recommend that you go online to Wikipedia.com and search for surnames for even more detail and helpful hints on various people's surnames. ~ Bill Cramsie ANCESTRY GROUP On Aug. 14, Forest Falls resident Shannon Wray gave a fascinating talk on the colorful history of some of the pioneers and wild people of the Mill Creek, Forest Falls, and Seven Oaks area. On Sept. 11 from 4:30 to 5:30 pm in Oakmont Rooms 1-2, David James, Solera resident, will speak on the history of underground mining in the United States. Note: this month's talk is not on the usual first Monday. HISTORY GROUP

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