A Tale of Lineage

As many of you may know, awhile back I started tracing my ancestry. I have decided to share what I have found with this community.

As I've already said before, I found that I come from a German man and Norwegian woman, however, there is much more to it than that.


The earliest I was able to trace my ancestry was on one side, Anglo-Saxon British and on the other side a German and Norwegian romance.

In the mid 1500s there was a German man, Adrian, who met a Norwegian woman, Agnes. They lived in Germany, but I was unable to find the name of an exact village, they possibly just lived in the countryside.

Their children's child, Alfhild, moved to Norway for unknown reasons. I tend to believe she wanted to get in touch with their Norwegian roots. In Norway she had a child with a man I am unable to trace. Perhaps she didn't know his name or he was just never recorded.

In the early 1600s, Alfhild's child, Birgitta, moved to England. Here, she met the Swedish man known as Emanuel. They had a daughter as well and called her Ellinor.

At a young age, Ellinor was wed to a man from Yorkshire, England. An Anglo-Saxon by the name Algar Puckrin.

Over time that surname changed many times. Online I found the reasons why. Here is a copy and paste from the webpage I found the information on:

"Surnames:
Pickering, Pikering, Puckerin, Puckering, Puckrin

The PICKERING name appeared in many manuscripts and from time to time the surname was spelled "PUCKERING, PICKERING, PYKERING and PIKERING. These changes in spelling even occurred between father and son. There were several reasons for the changes in spellings as there were many illiterate people and most everyone spelled a name out as it sounded to them."

In England, my "Pickering" ancestors seemed to do very well for themselves. They held a "family seat". A Family seat was the principle manor of a medieval lord, which was normally an elegant country mansion and usually denoted that the family held political and economic influences in the area. So on one side, I come from a poor, hard working, German and Norwegian blend, while on the other side, I come from a family of Lords that descended from the Anglo-Saxons.

My Pickering Family Crest:


In 1868 my ancestor Thomas Pickering arrived in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, USA. Over time, my family expanded and migrated to Missouri, USA. This is where my father, Christopher Pickering, met my mother, Paula Fox.

I have only met my father twice in my 21 years of life and have to say that I am not impressed. Though I gratefully accept the Nordic and Lordly bloodline, I have to say I will never have any relationship to my father and in my eyes, hes dead. I will soon be seeking to change my surname to my mother's name, Fox.

My mother is adopted and I couldn't find any ancestry for her AT ALL. My grandparents mostly took on the role of raising me, another reason I am wanting to change my last name to match theirs, Fox.

Though I will always be proud of the Scandinavian part of my family, I will never "love" the people who gave me that bloodline. I will always boast of having viking blood and religion, but more than just blood matters when one considers who their family is. Not to mention, Grimm Fox has a little better ring to it than Grimm Pickering, don't you think?

 

Very interesting dude. I've always thought about having a look myself or even hiring a private investigator to track down some family - I was brought up with just my brother & parents as both of them were only children and their parents died either before I was born or when I was very young. I've not got much of an idea of the origins of my own family.

 

ancestry.com helps a lot. it has a free trial that i used, u just gotta do more of the work on ur own with a free account. took me hours and hours of googling peoples names and a lot of digging lol.

 

Iv always been interested in finding out about my ancestry. I knew about ancestry. Com but wasn't sure about the legitimacy, i may use the free trial this weekend and if i find anything ill share it.

 

This is interesting, I've always wanted to trace my ancestry.

 

TLR what's the meaning of pickering?

 

people on the ridge of the pointed hill