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Patriarch's Page
originally posted to WorldFamilies.net by William Thomas Farrar, III
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Origins of Farrar Surname
This surname FARRAR is derivative of a ferror, a smith.1 Fayriher occurs in Cambridgeshire in the 13th century, whilst deFerar or de Ferrar is found in Devonshire, Derbyshire and Oxfordshire. Other spellings of the name include Ferror, FairerFerrour, FARRIER, FERRER2, FARRER, Ferrar. Fareher, Farher, Fayrher, FARROW, VAREY, VARROW, VAIROW and VARROW, to name but a few. The different locations bespeak different ancestries and haplogroups, but all stem from the occupation ferror.3
According to one source the name was brought into England in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066 when Johannes Helistones of Elland, HalifaxParish, Morley Wapentake, York in the Yorkshire Subsidy Roll of 1379 was listed with a tenant (fferror & uxor or wife). Hugo Farrourof Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. John Farra was recorded in County Yorkshire in the year 1400. Johannes Ferror, a littestar (litster, lister aka dyer), was listed in the Admissions to the Freedom of York, Henry IV, 1399-1413, a registry offreemen of York.4 William Farar, was chaplain and charter witness in 1491 Scotland. John Farar was recorded in Inverness in 1559.
HISTORY of FARRAR Surname
The 17th Century and earlier spelling of Ferrar was fferrar, where ff is capitalized. The spelling of words, much less names was not standardized in England or the UnitedStates until the mid 19th Century, literacy was uncommon, the name was often spelled at the discretion of some priest or governmental authority and the spelling chosen was based on regional accent and/or class.
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When one encounters in old documents the word ferror, then it is an occupation, when you encounter fferror it is a name.
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As late as the early 20th Century a Suffolk man would be hard pressed to understand a Yorkshire man and vice versa. Suffolk carried Saxon influences and idioms and Yorkshire was full of Danish idioms and influences.
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Even today England is beset with regional and local accents such that one strains to understand the speech of another.
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The occupation of a ferror (smith) was found in those iron ore rich portions of England, Norfolk, theWeald, midland counties, especially around Oxford, and the clifflands or cleveland of Yorkshire.
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There are representative descendants of those ferrors in the Farrar Farrow DNA project, and they belong, to date, to specific haplogroups, such as I2(Saxon-Danish), R1b1 (Celtic or original Brit) and R1a1a1b2(Eurasian) possibly brought to Yorkshire from the Levant by a returning crusader.
Surname Variations in America
The spelling of Farrar varies in England after the 17th Century, but is usually spelled Ferrar or Farrer. William who migrated to Virginia in 1618 was spelled fferrar in the Jamestown Muster of 1624/25, also spelled Ferrer in one record, and his son William II was spelled Ferrar in documents. As the family migrated out of the James River, some lineages fell into illiteracy when the father died before the children could be tutored. Education (tutoring) was the financial and personal responsibility of the father. If a father died while the children were untutored, it became a custom, especially in the south for a relative or family friend to take over guardianship of the child, and often the child so placed served as a servant. As a consequence many of the families, whose fathers died while children were untutored could not spell their surnames, but used phonetics and local pronunciations of the family surname. Hence some Farrars cameto be spelled Farrow.5
Farrar DNA
As project administrator of the Farrar-Farrow Surname Project at FTDNA WilliamThomas Farrar, III identified four variations or haplogroups of Farrar-Farrow yDNA with distinct genealogical origins:
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I2... those persons (mostly New Englanders) who descend from John Farrow of Hingham, Norfolk, Eng/Hingham, Mass. The Farrow surname, somewhere along the timeline morphed into Farrar. This flavor is Saxon/Angle maybe Danish. County Norfolk has/had large deposits of iron ore and was home to a large iron smelting industry..hence Ferrors.
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R1a Viking DNA(old Norse)... Danish, Swedish (and Slavic) is YCAII a and b of19-23; YCAII=19-23 is also Slavic, Scythian/Sarmatian. Living descendants use both Farrar and Farrow spelling variations.
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R1a Viking DNA(new Norse)...Norwegian DNA marked by Y-DNA segments (DYS) of YCAII a and b of 19-21 tested and matched to descendants of John Farrow of Hyco River, Person Co, NC who married Sabrina Saratt. Living descendants use both Farrar and Farrow spellings variations.
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R1b1...the descendants of James Farrar and Cynthia Miller of NJ, the descendants of this couple are ubiquitous, concentrated it seems in Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio (the great lakes region) and western Pennsylvania.
The identification of Z93 as an SNP in the Farrar-Farrow Family allowed deep clade research by the "R1a Project" 6 to study the migration of yDNA before the use of surnames. The Farrar-Farrow Surname Project is based upon genetic-genealogy using tests and matches to assist with historical and genealogical research. The project uses both yDNA STR and SNP testing to suggest lineages for living participants with ancestors who lived 1170 years before present "ybp". Haplogroup projects like the "R1a Project" are oriented to research before the use of surnames (about 1170 ybp for the Farrar-Farrow surname), and these haploprojects provide additional support for our historical and genealogical research. William Thomas Farrar, III's original narrative at WorldFamilies.net provided unique ideas about the introduction of the Farrar-Farrow yDNA into Europe, England, and America.7
In 2010 we added a second FTDNA project to our Farrar-Farrow research the Farrar's Island Project. Our Farrar's Island Project8 accepts yDNA, mtDNA, and autosomal DNA "auDNA" kits to support more recent historical research for participants in the"Farrar-Farrow Surname Project" and the "R1a Project." At Family Tree DNA a participant can join many projects and it's a good idea to use projects as additions to Farrar-Farrow Family research. In 2016 we added the BigY test (replaced by the BigY-500 in 2018) to the Farrar-Farrow Surname Project and the R1a Project. The BigY-500 is a current next generation sequencing test with extended SNP and STR tests and matches that combine historical, genealogical, and deep clade research into our projects.9
NOTES
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"Farrar is a surname. The principal contemporary alternate spelling is Ferrar and is an occupational surname for a blacksmith or ironworker- derived from the Latin ferrarius - and thus shares a common occupational derivation with the most common English surname, Smith." Source: Wikipedia contributors. (2018, May 9). Farrar (surname). InWikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:17, July 11, 2018,from
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"The surname Ferrer is a variant of the surnames Farrar,[1] Ferrier,Ferrers, and de Ferrers." Source: Wikipedia contributors. (2018,April 6). Ferrer (surname). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.Retrieved 23:21, July 11, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ferrer_(surname)&oldid=835158611
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Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
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Source: Admissions to the Freedom of York: Temp. Henry IV (1399-1413) |British History Online ).
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"Farrow is an hypercorrected form of Farrar, an occupational surname for a blacksmith or an ironworker, an old name of early Medieval Englishand French origin, located in Northern England. The name derives from the Middle English and Old French terms "ferrer, ferreor, ferour" (meaning "smith"), derivatives of "fer"(meaning "iron" in French), from the Latin "ferrum". The development of the surname shows the usual Medieval English change in pronunciation (and thence spelling) from "-er"to "-ar" and "-ow" endings." Source: Wikipediacontributors. (2018, June 6). Farrow. In Wikipedia, The FreeEncyclopedia. Retrieved 23:26, July 11, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farrow&oldid=844698565
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"This project is open for all R1a (R-M512) Y-haplogroup members. We encourage our members to test at least 37 STR-markers in order to review your haplotype." Source: Simple Ethnic Labels. (2018) R1aProject - Background | Family Tree DNA. Retrieved July 11, 2018,from
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Maps, Farrar-Farrow Surname Project, FTDNA, 7.13.2018 downloaded by cmb
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Compiling Evidence Both. (2018) Farrar's Island - Overview | Family Tree DNA.Retrieved July 11, 2018, from
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Source: Clyde Barnett, SMGF 2002, FTDNA participant since 2005