Hi, Ray, Ken sent me a note off list that indicated Cordiner came from a French word. I sent him back the following: Cordiner is not French as it stands... it could come from any of the following: corde: rope, cord, string, cordee (accent on 1st e): cord of wood, roped party of climbers cordonnerier, cordonnier: shoemaker It is his listed middle name. We have no idea why since we can't find where anyone in his ancestry came from the Cordiner family...at least not yet. Perhaps the family had a friend named Cordiner. I have not found ancestry under Kerr or his mother, the Coplands to tie into the Cordiner family. His grandparents were Kerr and Mackie, Copland and Cheyne. Great grandparents were Kerr and unknown so possible Cordiner, Mackie and Grieg, Coopland and Green, Cheyne and Henderson. I was hoping someone would come back with a Kerr Cordiner liaison that made sense to this line. I have been trying to get it more filled out like the rest of my lines. Thanks for the reply. Sometimes you have to a detective on the level of Sherlock Holmes to make sense out of the clues they leave you! In the Penny line I found that a business partner of the father was used as the middle name for his first son. Talk about not following naming conventions! So, Ray, yes, I agree it could be a leather worker, a rope worker, a climber, or a shoemaker... all have basis in linguistic roots. The problem is Charles was a farmer and his father from what I can tell was a farmer... so, where did the name come from... the missing link is his paternal grandmother. Somehow I just don't think it is going to be that simple! Laura (who has Scottish and French root as well as German and Swiss) > [Original Message] > From: Ray Hennessy <ray@whatsinaname.net> > To: <aberdeen@rootsweb.com> > Date: 11/24/2009 5:44:16 PM > Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Charles Cordiner Kerr > > Hi Laura, > > For what it's worth Cordiner seems to be an archaic Scottish form of > Cordwainer. > > These terms refer to workers in Cordovan, a special goatskin leather, > originally from Cordoba in Spain. Having started as signifying a > special leather worker, the term later came to mean a shoemaker in a > general way. > > There is a list of Old Occupations at Julie Groucher's ** Angler's Rest website: > http://freespace.virgin.net/anglers.rest/OldOccupations.htm > > Though it doesn't have Cordiner as such [only Cordwainer], I found it > in Chambers Scots dictionary. > > Ken May commented: > > > ..., I would be very surprised if Cordiner was ever used as a middle name for Charles. > > I'm intrigued by your assertion, Ken. If the "...Cordiner surname was > very prominent in the Peterhead area ...", would it not be natural - > and typically Scottish - to find it used occasionally as a middle > name? Or have I misunderstood your comment? > > Best wishes > > Ray > > [** Julie is one of our esteemed List Administrators.] > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ABERDEEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message