Expert: Frances Sampey Deak - 5/23/2009

Question
My last name is Darnold, and I've begun to do some genealogical research. I've found conflicting information. Some sites say it is Americanized French while others say it is English. I was wondering if you could tell which is correct.

Answer
Darnold is a Scottish name.  The story is three brothers came from Scotland and most people with that name either lived in Kentucky or the families past through there.

However, that does not mean that you are Scottish.  Many people changed their name when they came to America.  You should try to write out your family tree as far as you can and then visit some web sites that might help.  For starts (and free) there is rootsweb.com, familysearch.org, genforum.com and and gencircles.com.  If you wish to go further Ancestry.com is the best but they charge.

Good luck.