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Author: dekarnys
Surnames: Cairns Carnys
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.cairns/516/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I have been reading up on early Scottish history and I have a copy of Lawlors Cairns
family history. I have good reason to suspect that the earliest known Cairnes or de Carnys
who owned the lands of the deCarnys,about 1427 (owned by Duncan de Carnys) could have
been of norman extraction. My suspicions are because since about the time of King David 1
,around 1124, he invited normans to settle in Scotland, especially in the Lowlands.
However, just after the Norman Conquest of 1066, Saxons moved into the lowlands and were
accepted and settled by the then King Malcom 111. The Scots King took a Saxon princess as
Queen and the Saxons mixed with the Scots in marriage.
So the Lowlands and especially the Lothians was and became a semi-gothic/tentonic/gaelic
community. The place names in the area are mainly germanic which demonstrates the
predominance of the teutonic influence - Edinburgh - Edin or Odin - Burgh or Burough means
a fortress. So the early de Carnys were certainly Scot/saxon or as the prefix
"de" implies they were norman, already well established from as early as 1100.
Although the name Carnys implies a celtic origin for the name, it is possible that a
female from an early Scottish family could have married into a norman family and from
hence the norman influences became predominant!
Anyone care to debate my premise?
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