How to find the Origin of my Last Name Online

origin of last names

You can search for your last name and make family connections using online databases. Some of these databases contain millions of surnames. Most are free or provide some type of free access.

Here are some free name databases to help you search for the origin of your last name.

Things You'll Need

• origin of last names

Instructions

1. Find out from older relatives about the country and region where your family might have come from. Do some research for different possible spellings of your last name. Sometimes families spell the same last name differently depending on the location of origin.

2. Visit the website Family Education.com to find the origin of your last name. Find the Name Lab tab and then the Family Search tab. Type in your last name and the site will display its origin and other details in very descriptive form. This site is totally free of charge.

3. Try the index Mytrees.com. This collection of pedigree linked surnames contains millions of names. These names were provided from family group sheets. The site offers free software to build a family tree online.

4. Visit GeneNet. This is a world wide index of online and offline genealogy resources. GeneaNet includes over 70 million entries. This database was originally created in France and it is truly a worldwide index. Many of the family trees are available on GeneaNet.

5. Verify the results for the origin of your last name by validating various sources against each other.

   For links to find the origin of your last names see the Resources below this article.

Resources

• Database of last name
• Last name database