An Icelandic person can address his or her president in a public forum by his first name without causing public spectacle and attracting mass outcries of gross disrespect to their nation’s leader. But how is this possible? Iceland has traditionally operated without surnames. Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have traditionally used a patronymic naming pattern ...
A family name can tell us a great deal about a person. The fact that one of your ancestors in the distant past was named John and thus your family name is Johnson would seem of little moment. However we could don Sherlock Holmes (mythical) deerstalker and infer quite a lot from such an innocuous ...
In the past, genealogy has been stereotyped as a hobby for the older generation; the mere mention of the word would bring to mind images of a white-haired grandmother flipping through dusty volumes of census indexes and faded microfilms. But with the advent of the internet, genealogy has grown into a popular hobby that attracts ...
If it’s “off the beaten track” you’re looking for, consider a day trip or an overnight stay on the tiny island of Tangier, Virginia, located in the Chesapeake Bay. Tangier Island is just three miles long, has a resident population of about 600, and a handful of well-cared-for inns and restaurants. In June 2011, my ...
It has been tradition in the U.S. and many other countries throughout the world for women to assume their new husband’s name after marriage. Oddly enough, however, this isn’t a legal requirement in most states. It is merely a tradition that has been carried on throughout the years. The tradition continues as children born of ...
