What is the Heritage of the last name Wilkes and Reeves?

Question:

What is the Heritage of the last name Wilkes and Reeves?

Ive done quite a bit of foundational research, but I keep running into a few minor discrepencies amongst sources...just trying to establish a difinitive answer. I'd appeciate any help. Thanks

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Ancestry.com shows the following given as place of origin of Wilkes immigrants to the U. S.

England 155

Ireland 11

Germany 10

Liverpool England 9

Great Britain 7

France 7

They show the following given as place of origin for Reeves immigrants to the U. S.

England 271

Ireland 85

Great Britain 29

Devonshire 8

Scotland 8

Germany 8

Who knows how many Wilkes and Reeves were in colonial America and not on the immigration lists.

The same surname can come from more than one nationality and not everyone with the same surname is related or shares ancestors.

If these are your family names, the best way to know your heritage is to trace your ancestry starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time. Anytime you wish to do this, there are lots of great people on this board that can give you some good tips and advice. Just ask

Since you are interested in the origin of the two names, I am furnishing the links below as a warning against peddlers of surname products.

http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/faq.ht...

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/comconsumerp... I am not clear on what you define as foundational research... If you mean, looking up general sources that want to tell you what the name means, or where it originates, that is your problem, right there.
The nature of surnames is that there is normally no means or documentation that CAN prove exactly where it comes from. For example, Schmidt (I believe) can be translated into Smith. Or.. there may have been numerous INDIVIDUALS who were not related in any way, but their descendants carry the name, because the name came from an occupation.
If your ancestor was John Wilkes, born 1930 in Oklahoma, his heritage will not be the same as the John Wilkes born in 1755 in Pennsylvania.
Genealogy and surname origins seem to be connected, but there are fine distinctions, and reasons why the two topics have to be kept separate. You CAN research and verify the exact heritage of your direct ancestor(s) as persons. If you try finding the "heritage" of a surname, you can wind up going in circles. One is based in methodical research (and proof), while the other is researchable but not verifiable. Here is my standard answer. It isn't as definitive as the two you have already received, but it has a better joke.

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Man sees a sign, "Olaf Olafson, Chinese Restaurant". He goes in, orders a plate of chow mein, asks the Chinese gentleman behind the counter who is Olaf. Chinese gentleman says, "Me! There I was at Ellis Island. The man in front of me was a Swede, six foot four, broad shoulders, red beard. They ask him 'Name?' he says 'Olaf Olafson', in a voice that makes the pens rattle in their holders. Off he goes to seek his fortune. They ask me 'Name?', I say 'Sam Ting', and here I am."

Seriously, you should have 16 surnames among your great great grandparents, unless you double up on Smith, Johnson, Miller or Jones or someone married a cousin.

If you are in the USA and trace your family tree, you might find an immigrant who came through Ellis Island yearning to be free, a bootlegger, a flapper, a great uncle who died in the muddy trenches of France in 1917. You may find someone who marched off to fight in the Civil War (Maybe two, one wearing blue, one wearing grey). You may find a German who became Pennsylvania "Dutch", a Huguenot, an Irish Potato Famine immigrant. You might find someone who married at 18 and supported his family with musket, plow and axe in the howling wilderness we now call Ohio.

In the UK your chances of finding a homesteader are less, but your chances of finding that great uncle who served in WWI are better.

In Australia you may find someone who got a free ride to a new home, courtesy of the benevolent Government and HM Prison ship "Hope".

Your grandfather with that surname may have married a Scot, a Sioux, a Swede. HIS father, a stolid, dull protestant, may have married an Italian with flashing dark eyes, the first woman on the block to serve red wine in jelly glasses and use garlic in her stew. You'll never know if this is the only question you ask.