Family History

My family history divides fairly cleanly into four groups, one per grandparent:

Scottish/Irish

My 3g-grandfather, William McKennan, a wool dealer, left the Island of Arran in Scotland for Ballycastle, Antrim, Ireland around 1770, supposedly to escape the British after the collapse of the Charles Stuart revolt. Other surnames of major interest to me in this group include McLaughlin and McCormick in Co. Antrim, and Ramsay in Pollamore Near and Edenticlare, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

German

My German ancestors were mostly from Lahr, Altenheim, Mietersheim and Kippenheim in Baden, and Barr and Mittelbergheim in Alsace, across the Rhine. My 10g-grandfather, Peter Liermann , a butcher as were almost all his male descendants, supposedly was born in Pommern or Mecklenberg before 1623 and traveled to Baden with the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War. Apparently every Liermann in southwest Germany and environs is descended from him. Other surnames of primary interest to me here are Dietrich and Müllerleile in Baden, Kattrein in Hesse-Darmstadt, and Noll in Hesse-Cassell.

If you are interested in the surnames VIESER & MÜLLERLEILE, you might want to check out the website of Christian Vieser . Much of my information on these names came from him, and for that I am very grateful.

French

The French ancestors of my maternal grandmother's father were Waldensians (or Vaudois), mostly from Angrogne but also Rora, Prarustin, and Torre Pellice in Piemonte, in what is now northwest Italy, west of Turin. The major surname here is Rivoire . My maternal grandmother's mother's parents were Italian (Faustino Tavelli , born around 1826, somewhere in Italy), and English (Louisa Duncan , from Norwich). They were married in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1858, and that's all I have on them.

Italian

My mother's unmarried name is Della Calce , and I have had no luck at all with this branch of the family. Her father was born in Castiglione del Genovesi, near Salerno, in 1884. His parents' names were Luigi and Angelina, and that's all I have.

My Wife's Family

Jane's ancestors were Eastern European and Palestinian Jews. The most important names and places are:

• Rottenbach , from Dolina, Galicia;
• Small/ Smolowitz /Shmulevitz, from Lubitiz(?), Russia;
• Popper , from Galicia;
• Mouchly / Mouchlam , from Warsaw, Poland;
• Siegelwax , from Kolomyya, Austria-Hungary;
• Podhorzer , from Palestine.

The MOUCHLYs and SMOLOWITZes were in Palestine well before World War I, when the area was still part of the Ottoman Empire. The PODHORZERs were there much earlier.

Other surnames, of which we know next to nothing, are Cohen , Fishman and Sucher .