Where would I find out where a surname is from?

[cindym19721]

This may sound odd, but my biological father had an unusual surname and I have no idea where he was born. Does anyone know where I might be able to search for a possible origin?

His surname was SEREDIN. I've been told in the past that he was from Yugoslavia, but other than that I have no other information. I know he was born Apr 1947 and he died June 2019. IF anyone can point me in a direction for searching I'd be grateful

[Creasegirl]

I think it a Russian surname maybe armenian

[Ruskie]

The surname is just an indication of where his family could have originated of course, as people moved around a lot.

You could enter it in to one of theses surname profilers:
https://isogg.org/wiki/Surname_mapping
but they obviously just gives the distribution of the surname not your biological father’s place of birth.

Something which may be useful for you would be a DNA test. If you also test your mother, if she is still living, or one of your mother’s siblings, then in theory any matches that you and your mother do not have in common, should come from your father’s side of the family. You may find a close enough match which will enable you to work out who your father was or find some of his relatives, but at the least you might get an idea of his origins.*

Do you know his first name? Do you have his death certificate or marriage certificate which may give further details about him?

Good luck.

* Added: I see from other threads that Cindy has already taken a DNA test.

[barryd]

Seredin (Russian: Середин) is a Russian masculine surname derived from среда (sreda), a word meaning "Wednesday" in Russian, its feminine counterpart is Seredina.

Wikipedia

[Mart 'n' Al]

Searching for "SEREDIN -auto" without the quotation symbols excludes the car company references and links to lots of other people with the same name.

Martin

[TreeSpirit]

I'm not sure whether it is the right person (because he would have been rather young when he immigrated), but there is a possible candidate on the NAA site that mentions that he's Yugoslavian. The file ("Alien registration documents") hasn't been digitised yet, so you'd have to pay to have that done or visit the Melbourne archives.

[TreeSpirit]

Yes it is him: the following link gives date and place of birth: http://soda.naa.gov.au/record/1636846/76

(NB Page 45 has column names)

PS "V Seredin" could be Vasilij SEREDIN, Russian, b 25-3-1898 

[Ruskie]

Sorry, I must be missing something, but I can’t see that surname in that NAA link.

How do you think that V. Seredin fits in with the OP’s Seredin family?

[TreeSpirit]

"SEREDIN V" is the sponsor of the young boy (see top right of the previously mentioned link ... i.e. image 76).