Spanish Wrecks on Aberdeenshire Coast

[Rena]

These Spaniards must have been busy, the same stories are told in the Seaboard villages of Easter Ross.

Anent the name Sophia, probably from the grand-daughter of James VI, daughter of the Winter Queen & ancestress of the present royal house! See the popularity in Scotland of the names George, Albert & Victoria! Check also the family names of the laird of this fishing community & who did he marry, minister ditto!

Skoosh.

That's my thinking too.  My grandmother Edith Sophia b1884 was given her Hanoverian grandmother's name Sophia (b1824) and her Hanovarian gr/mother was named Marie Charlotte (Mary Queen of Scots/Charlotte of England?).    I've found that in general there's an awful lot of babies given the same name as the then current favourite royal, whether it's the arrival of a new baby prince(ess) (e.g. Sophia), a new queen (such as Willm & Charlotte) or a newly crowned king, the country's Saint, or a popular local lord, actor/baird, etc.

In one of my lines I've got back to Huntingdonshire in the late 1500s with a father who had the given name of Radulphi/Randolph.  There's an online book "Names and Naming Patterns in England 1538-1700", which suggests "Randolph" became popular due to an Earl Of Chester named Randolph.  Question Mark:  did that line of my family originate in the county of Chester and not Hunts?

   

[Rena]

SP has 14 Sophias in the OPRs before 1630, and 710 between 1630 and 1714. Some may have been named for the daughter of the Winter King and Queen of Bohemia, but I wonder just how many people in Scotland had actually heard of Sophia before the act of Parliament that made her the heiress to the crown?

I think we need to take into account the thousands of boats and ships manned by ordinary people plying between tiny harbours of Britain and the mainland.  Even though they didn't have the internet I think word by mouth would have spread from the coast to the hinterland via traders, messengers and church congregations, etc.

[Skoosh]

The Succession, both in Scotland & England has always been a "Hot Topic!" What were the Wars of the Roses & the tribulations of the Tudors. The murders of James I & James III plus the forced abdication of Mary, but succession disputes? Who succeeded to property, whether a kingdom an earldom or a farm has always been a hot-topic and genealogy an abiding interest, hence this website! There are Gaels living now who can recite their pedigree back 300 years.

Skoosh.

[hurworth]

Which company did you test with that is giving you this Iberian, and what is the percentage?

Ethnicity Estimate: Primarily Great Britain. 6% Scandinavian, 2% Iberian Peninsula 2% Europe West  1% Finland.

I tested with Ancestry and uploaded to both FTDNA and GEDMatch.  Yes the different companies use different algorithms and any matching and heritage results are just estimates. In the end I am pleased to make contacts and find further evidence to support the detail in my family tree. Margaret

2% is a Low Confidence region.   I have no idea how many people with British ancestry get some Iberian but low percentages may well be very common.  I can see some ( as a Low Confidence region) in the one kit I manage at Ancestry, but they have Peterhead ancestry.  No Cordiners that we know of yet.

[Jane Henderson]

My Grandmother was Margaret Phillips of Old Castle Slains, daughter of George Phillips Old Castle. The story of being descended from a Spaniard called Phillipe washed ashore from the Santa Catalena has been passed down in our family.

[hdw]

These Spaniards must have been busy, the same stories are told in the Seaboard villages of Easter Ross.

Anent the name Sophia, probably from the grand-daughter of James VI, daughter of the Winter Queen & ancestress of the present royal house! See the popularity in Scotland of the names George, Albert & Victoria! Check also the family names of the laird of this fishing community & who did he marry, minister ditto!

Skoosh.

That's my thinking too.  My grandmother Edith Sophia b1884 was given her Hanoverian grandmother's name Sophia (b1824) and her Hanovarian gr/mother was named Marie Charlotte (Mary Queen of Scots/Charlotte of England?).    I've found that in general there's an awful lot of babies given the same name as the then current favourite royal, whether it's the arrival of a new baby prince(ess) (e.g. Sophia), a new queen (such as Willm & Charlotte) or a newly crowned king, the country's Saint, or a popular local lord, actor/baird, etc.

In one of my lines I've got back to Huntingdonshire in the late 1500s with a father who had the given name of Radulphi/Randolph.  There's an online book "Names and Naming Patterns in England 1538-1700", which suggests "Randolph" became popular due to an Earl Of Chester named Randolph.  Question Mark:  did that line of my family originate in the county of Chester and not Hunts?

 

A lot of girls were called after the popular Duchess of Kent, Marina, in the 1930s.

Harry

[hdw]

My Grandmother was Margaret Phillips of Old Castle Slains, daughter of George Phillips Old Castle. The story of being descended from a Spaniard called Phillipe washed ashore from the Santa Catalena has been passed down in our family.

The well-known St. Monans (Fife) boatbuilding family of Miller have Phillips in their family-tree. I quote from a little book by a member of the family now living in New Zealand -

"... my father's maternal grandparents, who came in the eighteen hundreds to Scotland from Brittany, settled at first in Dunbar and then came over the Forth to St. Monans. Their French name was Felipe, but it was anglicized to Phillips."

Harry

[Jane Henderson]

I have a lot of information on the Phillips of Old Slains, but nothing to indicate they were in St Monans. However, as they were mostly fishermen, it is possible one married there as it was a fairly transient occupation.

[hdw]

You said your Phillips ancestors were Spanish, but the St. Monans Phillips claimed Breton ancestry, so there's not necessarily a connection.

Harry