Slater

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Gail Riddell

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Updated 31 January 2015

Very soon your project will undergo a major enhancement - it will "look different", but all the main options will remain in place although they will shift to a menu to the left hand side.

A totally new feature will be what is named an "Activity Feed". This will be totally closed to ONLY members of this project - nobody else is able to see anything that takes place. That means all your files and information and photographs that you place in this new forum belong to you - you can alter, remove or add your own whenever you wish and be secure in the knowledge that ONLY fellow members can see same... It will act a little similarly to a "Secret" facebook group. But you will not be able to invite members to join in - any new member must first join the project. (mtDNA; Y-DNA; atDNA makes no difference).

Updated 18 July 2014

Use the menu bar (including the drop-down menus) across the top of the project page to navigate to any page of the project website.

Surname DNA testing is the the best "add-on" tool available to genealogists! The many advantages include:-

Surname tests (Y-DNA) enable genealogists to verify their father's father's...father's paternal ancestry. (The molecular - aka genetic - ancestry overrides the 'surname' ancestry).
Molecular ancestry information can be very powerful when combined with traditional paper trails and can uncover family secrets!

This project is keen for people from the United Kingdom, all the countries of Western Europe, Northern and Eastern Europe, the United States of America, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa (and anywhere else I have missed when I considered the countries in which the surname exists...) to please join it.

Like all surname projects, this one is intent upon proving connections using DNA. But it is NOT just surname ancestry. It is molecular (or as some prefer it, genetic) ancestry.

The best articles I have found to date for understanding just what 'DNA' is and how the results of testing can help you with your genealogy are:-

http://dna-explained.com/2012/08/19/autosomal-results-the-basics/

http://stevemorse.org/genetealogy/dna.htm

http://stevemorse.org/genetealogy/beyond.htm

If you are reading this, then it is assumed you are hunting for details about your ancestors and extending your knowledge about your particular line.

DNA testing will certainly aid you in a number of ways but you must still have a paper trail if you want to name that ancestor when you find you have a match!
DNA testing will also inform you whether your paper trail is correct. (My favourite 'hobby-horse' is to tell you not to rely on the work of someone else UNLESS they have supplied you with references to enable you to check these for yourself).

Here is a hint for you if you have tested FF.

Once you (or anyone) joins a project, you can go to your FTDNA Home Page and hover your mouse over the FF Drop-down menu visible in the blue tool bar. Then select "Advanced Matches" from that menu. Check FF and select whether you want to see your matches in either the full data base, or just in the specific projects that you have joined.

Because it is a pain switching from one window to another, I have three browsers, so that I can get the same person’s Home page up showing different reports for the same tester all at the same time.

Prepared 25 May 2013

Whether you are male or female, you along with your family history as far as you know it, are welcome into this project.

Surname of Slater

This surname is of early medieval English origin, and is an occupational name for someone who covered roofs with slate. The derivation is from the Middle English "s(c)late", from the Old French"esclate", slate, with the addition of the agent suffix"er" (one who does or works with). Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the name bearer and later became hereditary.

Early examples of the surname include: Roger Sclatiere and Walter Sclatter, recorded respectively in the 1279 Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire and Berkshire, also Thomas Slater, entered in the Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire,in 1297. In the modern idiom the name has four spelling variations: Slator,Sclater, Slatter and Slater. A Coat of Arms granted to the Slater family of Chesterfield, Derbyshire,is gold, a red chevron between three green trefoils slipped. A dexter arm in armour couped below the wrist, holding in the gauntlet a sword all proper with a gold hilt and pommel, is on the Crest.

The Slater Motto, "Crescit sub pondere virtus" translates as, "Virtue thrives beneath Oppression".

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas le Sclatere, which was dated 1255, in the "Middle English Surnames of Occupation", Worcestershire, during the reign of King Henry111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Thomas Slater was documented in the year 1297 in County Yorkshire. The name was in Scotland at an early date and Henry Sclater was concerned in a charge of breaking the peace in Aberdeen in 1399. John Sclater was the burgess of Arbroath in 1458, and John Sclater was slater for the palace and church of Dunkeld in 1514.

Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries,surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Whilst the History books are full of Slater men who have made contributions to society, especially in America where a Samuel Slater began a huge textile business in the 18^th Century, thus far, nothing has come to light that indicates any connection with Royalty or political power.

Nor have I been able to discover at what point the Cumbrian ‘Slater Family’ were able to become land owners (in Cumbria– the modern name being Cumberland) in their own right. For that, it would be necessary to know the politics of the times when many of the tenant farmers took action against their landlords (frequently the Earls and Barons of the area) and couple this with the religious fervours (Catholicism versus the ‘Church of England’), the lootings, destruction and political manoeuvres, not to mention the movements between counties.