Gosh, am I that formidible? I have no vested interest in the origin of CARRICO.
It's my scientific training not to commit to an outcome so as to avoid being
biased; life has also taught me not to commit to an outcome to avoid
disappointment. If I've harped on anything, it's that we don't know
Peter's
origin, so shouldn't make any assumptions, so I will admit to trying to stomp
out secondary sources who give his origin as Normandy or just France.
As we know, the orthography of the name and the present distribution of the name
tell us he's probably from some southern European country on the Atlantic coast
(Portugal) or the northern coast of the Mediterranean, from Spain to Turkey.
Our Y-DNA haplogroup supports that origin.
The one piece of "evidence" we have is Homer CARRICO's reciting of the
claim
that the family originally spoke French. If true, it's strong evidence of a
French origin. The problem is that you can't trust Homer's work or even the
original claim. Let's be frank and grant that, at the time, it was socially
more acceptable to be French than it was to be Portuguese, Spanish, or Italian,
so the claim that the early CARRICOs spoke French may have been fabricated.
I recently bumped into a web site that gives world distributions of surnames:
http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Main.aspx
Keep in mind there's a bias in the database towards locations from which they
have data, so while presence on the map means presence in the locality, absence
from their maps doesn't necessarily mean absence from the locality.
The results of a search on CARRICO were interesting, to say the least, and the
results should please you, Tim. Next to the United States, CARRICO is most
common in Luxembourg, specifically in the Grevenmacher District of Luxembourg,
and next most common in the central districts of France. There are three
languages spoken in Luxembourg, one of which is French. Anyone planning a
European vacation? Not a bad destination, and we certainly could use a DNA
sample from there!
Diana
-----Original Message-----
From: carrico-bounces(a)rootsweb.com On Behalf Of Tim Weaver, Owner
Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 5:16 PM
To: carrico(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: [CARRICO] Jean Baptiste CARRICO
Linda:
I hardly know where to start. When word of French ancestry
comes to my attention, my heart beats faster and I feel a
lift. Growing up I was steeped in the theory that the Carrico
clan is French. That myth died hard in my heart and many
times I have offered rewards to anyone who can prove that
Peter I was French and of French ancestry.
<snip>
In any event, we are on track with DNA to settle the
question. So far, none of the American Carricos tested seems
to be of French descent. The most likely origin is Portugal
with some tracing to Italy, I believe. Hope I'm right about
this or Diana will have my head!
Best,
Tim Carrico Weaver