NON-SCOTTISH/BRITISH SURNAMES

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Penny Tray
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NON-SCOTTISH/BRITISH SURNAMES

Post by Penny Tray »

What are the non-Scottish/British surnames which reflect the rich ethnic mix of the Three Towns?

Clearly there will a substantial amount of Italian ones, which is interesting in itself, but I'm struggling with others which surely must exist.

Off the top of my head I can think of Maroni, Di Carlo, Delgrecco, Piacintini, Depratto, Marchetti, Biagi and Narducci.

I think there may also have been a family in Firth View Terrace, Ardrossan, called Vidimus which sound Eastern European?
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Re: NON-SCOTTISH/BRITISH SURNAMES

Post by morag »

There was a Shenkel family in Stevenston late 50's early 60's. The older boy was Carl.
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Post by Hughie »

On my father's side there are the Cornelius family who where Irish Palatines.
In 1709 England's reigning monarch, Queen Anne, sent a fleet to Rotterdam and brought to London about 10, 000 of the refugees which the French had displaced in the Southern Palitinate.
The English sent most of them to America to combat the French influence from Canada. The remainder were sent to Ireland - Rathkeale in Limerick is where they settled. My ancestors arrived in Scotland from Ireland prior to 1810. In 1841 there were two Cornelius families - father and son in that year's census in Green Street Saltcoats.
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Post by wellparkno9 »

Hi Penny Tray,Here's more Italian names that were once heard about the three towns,in Countess St.there was Lanni,we called it the 3 blind mice.Then there was ,Millani,Biagioni,Tognarri,Farro,Manfredini,Gonnelli,Carrino,Tortalanni,Cavani,and I remember a family in Springvale St.by the name of Di Alesandro.The fathers name was Germano ,he used to fry for the Station Restaurant
And how could we leave out Agostini,Alfie had the Castlehill Vaults.An other was the West Kilbride family Pissani,and an other,Narducci.Regards ,Sam.
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Post by John Donnelly »

Back in the 50's in Castle Avenue in Stevenston, we had neighbours called Magnes, (Magnus). Sounds very Scandinavian.

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Post by Penny Tray »

These are all very interesting and hopefully lots more will emerge. Reading these another Italian one came to mind - Brogi. One family had a wee cafe/chip shop just off Glasgow Street.
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Post by down south »

There was a family of Olufsens of Danish ancestry living locally; the name Oluf Olufsen was passed down the generations, and I was at school with one of them. I've seen a reference to the various Oluf Olufsens on the Sea Queen page in the general part of the 3T site, describing this as a " well-known name in Saltcoats " , so someone might be able to expand on their claims to local fame.
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Post by Meg »

I went to school with someone called Olsen - obviously of Scandinavian descent. One of the reasons we dont have a lot of Polish or Lithuanian names - although there were lots of immigrants from those places who came to the three towns - was because their names were seen as mispronounceable so the men were lined up and renamed. So if you know families called North South East West Brown Black Green White etc. they are probably of Polish or Lithuanian descent.

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Post by John Donnelly »

Now, thereby hangs a tale. Some time ago, we had a thread about the characters in the 3T's. Among them, Big Vincent Smith got honourable mention. His family were, I believe, Lithuanian, who changed to Smith on arrival in Scotland.

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Post by Penny Tray »

There was a lovely man, Mr. BROWN, who lived in Winton Street, Ardrossan, and was prominent at one time, I think, with the Winton Rovers committee and he clearly wasn't Scottish/British. I understood him to be LATVIAN. His son Billy was an excellent goalkeeper and appears in the recent photo posted at Eglinton/Winton XI.
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Post by Hughie »

Going on from what JD said about Lithuanians in Stevenston. This was posted back in 2000.
Lithuanians in Stevenston
From: "Hugh McCallum" <hewmac@xx.com.au>
To: <threetowners@topica.com>
Sent: Monday, May 29, 2000
Subject: [3T] Lithuanians in Stevenston

John Miller the compiler of the Landsborough Census is originally from Stevenston. For those of you who are interested John also wrote a book. His parents were Lithuanian refugees, The book which should be in local libraries (published two years ago) is about the Lithuanian refugees lost history, culture, customs, how it affected John personally ie name calling at school in Stevenston, how the families changed their name to `fit in`. How their customs are now lost.

A few Lithuanians must have come to the area - we have a family connection on my wife's side to Lithuanians who came to Stevenston and changed their name.

Details:

"The Lithuanians in Scotland: a personal view" by John Millar. 1998. Published by House of Lochar, Isle of Colonsay, Argyll, PA61 7YR. paperback with 166 pages.
John Millar is a Scot born of parents who left Lithuania before the Great War to escape persecution and find employment in industrial central Scotland. Through a selection of reminiscences from members of the Lithuanian community in Scotland and his own detailed research he traces their struggle for survival in an alien world."

Hugh McCallum
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Re: NON-SCOTTISH/BRITISH SURNAMES

Post by chriso »

Meg Gordon wrote


I went to school with someone called Olsen


Meg it was interesting to read the above, as my name is Olsen. I have lived in the three towns most of my life but have never heard of anyone with that name before, other than my own, in the three towns.
Could you give me any further information on this?

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