Tracing the Wilson Line

Since I traced the Haun name last time, I thought I would do the same for the maternal side of my family too: the Wilsons. The issue with this side of the family is that the actual last name "Wilson" is HUGELY popular, and the further you go back, the more jumbled up you get.

So for this one I am relying hugely on records provided and linked to by the LDS church. They have an excellent vetting process and I am more comfortable with the accuracy of their records than those of other.

That being said, the oldest I feel like I can confidently trace our particular Wilson line to is David Willson. He married Rachell Dowar on July 4th 1680 in Midlothian, Scotland. And they had a son named David Wilson, whose christening was on October 7th 1680 also in Midlothian. I have no birth or death dates for the first David or Rachell tho.

I should mention that until like...a year ago there was "controversy" on whether or not James Wilson was the son of David Wilson or this other dude named Edward P. Wilson. But according to the church genealogists James is in fact the son of David.

I included a visual aid so you could see how the line moves from the first David Willson all the way down to me. Note the star by James' birth year. That is because either his or his fathers (probably Davids) birth year is off. That would make his father almost 100 at the time of his birth. More than likely there was a David in between the two and the records just got mixed up since they are all named David. A common issue, but an issue which I have noted and am researching further.

The origins of the actual name Wilson are pretty easy to understand. Wilson: "English, Scottish, and northern Irish: patronymic from the personal name Will, a very common medieval short form of William" Pretty much means way back when they would say David, son of Will/William. (William, btw is a mush up of Will and Helm which mean "Desire" and "Helmet/protection"). But then surnames caught on (most likely in the end of Medieval times) so they would just do David Willson. And when they came over to America, one of the "Ls" got cut out (a side effect of immigration in the late 1700s) so it's just Wilson!

Now, because there is such a huge number of Wilsons, I can't pin down our exact coat of arms. There are over 70 Wilson coat of arms. And a lot of those depict the Norman/English version of the coat of arms bearing a wolf. Now I'm going to mess up the family a little bit, because I'm pretty sure we aren't actually Norman/English Wilsons. Im 95% sure we are Nordic/Scottish Wilsons. Now the Norman/English Wilson name came from a Danish Prince named Wolf, and his sons were the Wolfsons which got corrupted into the Wilfsons, and later the Wilsons. The Nordic name is actually Willson, son of William Gunn who came to Scotland in the 1300s.

While I can't establish a direct line to William Gunn, I am pretty sure we come from him or his line, not the Danish Wilsons. Reasons? Number 1 is the obvious, Danish Wilsons never ever used two "L's" and our ancestor David Willson is on the written record from 1680 as having those two "L's". Reason number 2, David 1, Rachel Dowar, and David 2 are all on record as having at some time lived (and in David 2s case born) in Midlothian Scotland, the area where William Gunn eventually settled.

FUN FACT: There actually is DNA evidence of William Gunn and a modernish direct ancestor (He died in like 1920 but they have his DNA), I plan on submitting a DNA kit of myself to the experts at Ancestry DNA (Once I save up the extra cash). If I do indeed have this particular haplogroup, then we know that I come from Clan Gunn! Exciting!!!

And that is where I shall leave the Wilson history for now. If you want so great reads on Wilson history here a couple links to well vetted sources:

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Johan Jakob Hahn and the Origin of Hahn

As you may have noticed, I am a Haun. So I decided my very first mission on here would be to track my last name as far back as I could. Turns out that was a little harder than I expected. But with the help of both FamilySearch and Ancestry.com and a very helpful phone call to the genealogy center in Salt Lake City, I was able to go back a little further than I had on my own.

I wasn't able to get a whole lot of info but I did get some. The furthest validated record of our name of someone who was actually for sure related to us was with Johan Jakob Hahn in 1758 in Ropperhausen, Hessen-Nassau, Prussia. His name is listed in a microfilm registrar of German Births and Baptisms from 1558-1898. He is listed as having two children, George Hahn and Heinrich Hahn. I made a quick visual aid so you could see the "Line of Haun" all the way down to me with names and the years they were born.

Unfortunately that is pretty much the only source I was able to find on him. His spouse is even listed as unknown. But I didn't want to leave you hanging with a short post, so I decided this would be a great time to just research the origin of the name Hahn.

According to Ancestry.com Haun is: "German: from Middle High German hane ‘rooster’, hence a nickname for a conceited or sexually active man. In some instances it may have been a habitational name from a house bearing the sign of a rooster. One of the many Ashkenazic surnames based on vocabulary words denoting birds or animals."

Don't worry, I googled that crazy word. Turns out "Hahn" is very traditionally German Jewish. Ashkenazic Jewish to be precise. Which is a regional subgroup of Jews in the Germanic regions of Eastern Europe. Hahn is considered an animal Ashkenazic name. If you want an interesting read on Ashkenazic Names I suggest looking here.

The earliest instance of "Hahn" was clear back around 1230 with Eckhard Hahn or "Eggehardus Gallus" as his name was later made more Latin. The Hahns in that time were considered nobility! Eckhard was a councilor and knight to Duke Johann the 1st of Mecklenburg, and it seems as though his line continued to serve the "princes of Mecklenburg" for quite some time. Because he is basically the first Hahn, I hope to be able to establish a link between him and Johan, and take my line back further with more research! Hahn is documented in the "Deutsches Adels-Lexicon. im Vereine mit mehreren Historikern." which you can look at here. It roughly translates to "A Dictionary of German Nobility in Association with Several Historians." References to the Hahn family can be found starting on page 152 and then randomly throughout the rest of the book. You can learn more about Eckhard specifically by checking out here and here. I know they are Wikipedia articles, but they are well sourced. You also might need to translate them from German.

Around Eckhard's time is also when the "Hahn" Coat of Arms started showing up. There are, as with every coat of arms, several renditions. The most common one for the Hauns is the Red Rooster on a Silver Shield. That is the Coat of Arms that ties closest with my particular Haun Heritage. There is also a blue one that is essentially the same, but the shield is not tilted and it has more ties with English Hahns than our German ones.

The Coat has not changed much. It has the Rooster. Or "Shield of the Cock" as the history books like to call it. Two feathers on the rooster are supposed to be black but I couldn't find a picture I liked of those. But they represent the two values of the Hahn name: Vigilance and Militancy. Which I completely enjoyed learning as they are so spot on. The Hahn motto was added sometime later: Primus sum, qui Deum laudat. Which means "I am the first who praises God"

And that is pretty much what I found for the origin of the name. As I said, I hope to establish a direct link to Eckhard if I can with more research, for now I shall have to deal with the large blank space in between 1230 and 1758. I may not ever be exact, but Prussia and later Germany were some of the earliest censused areas so I am hopeful I will at least be able to establish more connections in the coming years.

Thanks for letting me prattle on!

My Story

Hi! I'm Elisabeth. I am the oldest of five children and the only girl. I adore Star Trek, Stargate, Pacific Rim, and reading. When Im not artist-ing I like to hike and am a hobbyist photographer. I also like to nap. A lot. I collect postcards and pins from all over the world. I also collect Junior Ranger badges from all the State Parks and National Parks I go to. I hope to become a real Park Ranger after I graduate at one of my favorite state parks or national parks in Utah.

When I first entered the Young Women's in my church, I was introduced to genealogy. You know, that thing that old ladies do. But I fell in love with it. There is nothing more amazing than being able to find stories and pictures of your own ancestors. I started indexing when I was 14 and I haven't stopped. When I was living in Cedar City, UT, I was even called to be the Ward Indexing Teacher! Throughout this whole process, as I delved deeper and deeper into my own past, I discovered the amazing stories of my ancestors. Stories that I think deserve to be shared. But first, let's start with my story:

I was born on April 30th, 1995 in American Fork, Utah, to Caleen and Dustun Haun. They named me Elisabeth Anne Haun. I was so small that even preemie baby clothes were still loose on me. I was born so early that my parents didn't even have baby stuff at our house, so I slept in my car seat next to my moms bed for a while!

Obviously I can't remember way back then, but I can gather that my early childhood was pretty great. Being a first baby, and an only girl, Im sure I was spoiled rotten. I can't tell you how many of my childhood pictures are of me in a huge poofy dress! Everything was fine until 1997 when my parents decided I needed a baby brother. And then in 1999 they decided I actually needed two MORE baby brothers. And then in 2001 they finally decided I needed a baby sister, except they messed up and I got ANOTHER baby brother!

Oh boy let me tell you how much fun four little brothers are. Bucket. Buckets of fun. Four brothers meant I always had friends though! Or did it mean I always had test subjects... We had a pretty great childhood together. Camping, family reunions, elementary school, the works. We even got all the way through it without breaking any bones. Quite the accomplishment considered we once threw our four year old brother out of a tree. 

When I was 8 I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The greatest blessing in my life! Since then my testimony has only gotten stronger. I would not have made it through the struggles of my life so far without the guiding hand of my Heavenly Father and the comfort of the gospel. If you are at all curious about what I believe, I encourage you to visit Mormon.org.

I attended American Heritage Academy for K-5th grade, American Leadership Academy for 6th, Mt. Nebo Jr High for 7-9th, and Salem Hills High School for 10-12th. In high school I was in my schools marching band and concert band as a percussionist. I was a member of the Salem Hills Envirothon team for 3 years, 2 of which I served as captain, including the year we won the state competition and went on to compete at the International Envirothon Competition in Pennsylvania. I served as president of the Salem Hills Bio Science club for two years. And in 2013 I graduated and moved on to adulthood. I briefly attended Southern Utah University for a semester in 2014 before moving back home. I look forward to continuing my education at Utah Valley University.

My life is just beginning, and I look forward to the many adventure I will have!