Thank you, Anne. I shall continue my pursuit of the Thorntons. Here in America, any time I've said we were Scots, were told "oh no, that's English" Brrrr. Maybe a few of them headed south, but my line are still Scots. My group were in the West Lothian area and someone married a person from Shotts. Haven't seen a Duncan yet, but there's always a chance. Someone on this list shared the info from Black's book and I've been able to order one, so it will be another read for me. Thanks to all. Jeannette On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 4:50 AM, Anne Burgess via <lanark@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Thornton is reasonably straightfoward - from Old English meaning 'thorn' > and the suffix '-ton' which again is Old English and means a farm. So it's > a place name from a place which is thorny. I know what G F Black says, but > it's entirely possible for the surname to have originated independently in > one of several places of the same name as well as in the Mearns. > I can think of a Thornton in Fife and another in Angus, and a Thorntoun in > Ayrshire. > > There is a concentration of the surname around West Lothian and > Lanarkshire. > My 4th-great-grandfather was Duncan Thornton, who farmed at Hirst in the > parish of Shotts in the late 18th century. It must have been a pretty hard > life because it's poor farmland, heavy, wet and boggy in spite of being > high up and pretty exposed to the worst of the weather. He had 11 recorded > children by two marriages. Two daughters died young, another daughter died > unmarried at a ripe old age, and one son was my 3rd-great-grandfather. I > have no idea what became of the other two sone and five daughters. They may > also have died young, or moved away, or emigrated. As for Duncan, I have no > idea where he came from. > > Anne > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier > message. Be sure the reply to address shows as LANARK@Rootsweb.com. > > You may contact the List Admin at lanark-admin@rootsweb.com or click on > the following link to the list information page online: > http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/SCT/LANARK.html > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LANARK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

From SURNAMES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: A CONCISE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY BY H E N R Y H A R R I S O N 1918 THORNTON (Eng. and Scand.) Bel. to Thornton ; or Dweller at the THORN - Tree ENCLOSURE or FARMSTEAD [O.E. O.N. \orn + O.E. O.N. tun] Thornton, Dorset, occurs in a charter A.D. 958 as 'aet porntune' — dat. The various York. Thorntons appear in Domesday-Bk. as Torentun, Torentune, Tornetun, Torneton, Tornitun ; Lanc. Domesday entries being Torenton, Torentun; Chesh., Torintone. Forms in the Hundred-Rolls (A.D. 1274) are Thorneton, Thorntone. Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 16/04/2016 15:09, Jeannette Walton via wrote: > Thank you, Anne. I shall continue my pursuit of the Thorntons. Here in > America, any time I've said we were Scots, were told "oh no, that's > English" Brrrr. Maybe a few of them headed south, but my line are still > Scots. > > My group were in the West Lothian area and someone married a person from > Shotts. Haven't seen a Duncan yet, but there's always a chance. > > Someone on this list shared the info from Black's book and I've been able > to order one, so it will be another read for me. > > Thanks to all. > Jeannette --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Hi My Gran was a Thornton she was born in Ireland went to live in Scotland When i did my DNA it came back i was 70% British 25% Scandinavian and 5% European Regards Jean ________________________________________ From: lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com <lanark-bounces@rootsweb.com> on behalf of Nivard Ovington via <lanark@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, 17 April 2016 1:23 AM To: lanark@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [Lanark] Thornton From SURNAMES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: A CONCISE ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY BY H E N R Y H A R R I S O N 1918 THORNTON (Eng. and Scand.) Bel. to Thornton ; or Dweller at the THORN - Tree ENCLOSURE or FARMSTEAD [O.E. O.N. \orn + O.E. O.N. tun] Thornton, Dorset, occurs in a charter A.D. 958 as 'aet porntune' — dat. The various York. Thorntons appear in Domesday-Bk. as Torentun, Torentune, Tornetun, Torneton, Tornitun ; Lanc. Domesday entries being Torenton, Torentun; Chesh., Torintone. Forms in the Hundred-Rolls (A.D. 1274) are Thorneton, Thorntone. Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 16/04/2016 15:09, Jeannette Walton via wrote: > Thank you, Anne. I shall continue my pursuit of the Thorntons. Here in > America, any time I've said we were Scots, were told "oh no, that's > English" Brrrr. Maybe a few of them headed south, but my line are still > Scots. > > My group were in the West Lothian area and someone married a person from > Shotts. Haven't seen a Duncan yet, but there's always a chance. > > Someone on this list shared the info from Black's book and I've been able > to order one, so it will be another read for me. > > Thanks to all. > Jeannette --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus ------------------------------- WHEN REPLYING to a post please remember to snip most of the earlier message. Be sure the reply to address shows as LANARK@Rootsweb.com. You may contact the List Admin at lanark-admin@rootsweb.com or click on the following link to the list information page online: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/intl/SCT/LANARK.html ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LANARK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message