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Archivesthe origin of my last name?
How about my last name... Does anyone know the origin of my maiden name "Carothers?" I've seen this spelled many different ways and I wonder if I'm somehow related to the other spellings.
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Carothers is a form of Carruthers, which is a locative surname which indicates that one's ancestors came from the town of Carruthers in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. If you look on the following map, you will find Carrutherstown to the southeast of the city of Dumfries:
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scottish/map3.GIF
http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~scottish/map3.GIF
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wow... that's pretty cool. Do you know how names get changed like that? Why would someone change the spelling of their last name? Does this mean that Carruthers out there are my relative (DISTANT)?
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The spelling was probably not deliberately "changed". Spelling was not a set thing until about 400 years ago. You probably could have found the name of the town in Scotland spelled many different ways in medieval records. It is possible that you are related to people whose surname is spelled Carruthers, but it's also possible that more than one family received Carruthers/Carothers as their surname. You would have to do genealogical research to be sure.
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