Asher/Ashur/Ashor origins

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Mairi
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:06 am
Location: Edinburgh, Lothian

Asher/Ashur/Ashor origins

Post by Mairi » Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:52 pm

Researching Ashers, I found the earliest birth in Moray in 1657---Janet to Alexander and wife.

It seems there may have been three or four brothers/cousins who settled in Moray in the mid-17th century.

Ashur and Ashor were early spellings of the name which I understand to be Jewish.

The Ashers were predominently farming folk in Moray for centuries and the name is more common there than anywhere else in Scotland as far as I can see.

Given the trade with the Baltic countries and the Low countries I think the early settlers may have been from either of these regions, possibly the former as Alexander and Ludovick suggest Lithuania or Estonia.

Do you think I might be right?
Mairi.

AnneM
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Location: Aberdeenshire

Post by AnneM » Sat Mar 01, 2008 7:01 pm

Hi Mairi

My version of the name is Assur and comes from Germany to Glasgow in the early C19. I believe that it is Jewish and originally Eastern European. Hope you find out more.

Anne
Anne
Researching M(a)cKenzie, McCammond, McLachlan, Kerr, Assur, Renton, Redpath, Ferguson, Shedden, Also Oswald, Le/assels/Lascelles, Bonning just for starters

Mairi
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2007 1:06 am
Location: Edinburgh, Lothian

Post by Mairi » Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:36 pm

Thank you Ann.

My hunch is that the Moray Ashers were from Eastern Europe.

A James Asher married an Agnes Leal in 1778. Researching the name Leal, I see it has Jewish origins too and links with Portugal!

Of course by this time the families had integrated with the local farming families and the children had Scottish Christian names.

It is interesting to learn the origins of these Moray names just as it is with other east coast names i.e. in Fife.

I wonder whether there are other names of foreign origin, dating from the mid-seventeenth century, that I have not yet come across in this Morayshire research.

Mairi