Surnames A-Z: R

There's a new meme going around Facebook right now. Genealogists are listing their mother's maiden name, father's surname, maternal and paternal grandparents' surnames and a few more generations back.

It's a cute idea but I don't think it's wise to be providing such detail, especially your mother's maiden name, as it is often the secret question asked on sites where you require a password to log in.

So I'm revising the meme to suit me and I hope others will follow suit, either here as a comment on Olive Tree Genealogy blog, or on their own blog.

Over the coming weeks I'll be listing my surnames starting with "A" and going through the alphabet until I reach "Z".

I'll preface this with a caveat - most surnames are more common than you might think, so sharing a surname doesn't mean we're related. To be completely useful any surname list should have a geographic location and a time period. But this is just a fun little exercise and if you spot a name of interest, just let me know and we'll compare dates and locations.

R SURNAMES: Rabbit, Rainer/Rayner, Ralph, Rolfe, Roos, Rottmer, Roy, Ruys, Ryckman

Join me - maybe we connect! Find previous surnames on Surnames A-Z