Swartwout Name Study

Date: 3 Apr 2023 [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Swarthout Swartwood Swartout

About the Project

The Swartwout Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Swartwout, Swarthout, Swartout, and other variations of the name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Swartwout name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Swartwout's), by time period (18th Century Swartwout's), or by topic (Swartwout DNA, Swartwout Occupations, Swartwout Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Swartwout Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Lorraine O'Dell M.L.S. for *assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Just copy the code beneath the sticker and paste it on your own profile below the Biography heading in your profile. Thank you for joining the project.

How We Communicate

This Study began with a member of the Swartwout, et al group on Facebook who has a couple of web sites dedicated to the family history. So, that group has been a good way of communicating about the Study. But, after this WikiTree Study began it was necessary to have alternative channels of communication. WikiTree projects often use Google groups to communication so the Swartwout Name Study Group @ Google has been created. Through Google groups, we can send one message to all the members of the Study at the same time.

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

• Study Size Estimate
• Profiles included in the Study appear on the Study's [Category Page].
• Project Instructions
• Resource Page
• Famous Swartwouts, et al.
• List of Swartwout DAR Patriot Trees [[1]].

Membership

• Lorraine O'Dell
• Mark W. Swarthout
• Linda Click

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Swarthout
• Swartwood
• Swartout
• Swartwoud
• Blackwood, if derived from Swartwood

Tasks and Project Goals

• To Identify and record all individuals found with the included variant spellings whether on WikiTree or elsewhere.
• To build and complete profiles for each included individual to WikiTree PIP standards by supplying valid [sources] correctly formatted for WikiTree. Consider using the [WikiTree Sourcer] extension on your browser.
• To have birth, marriage and death information on each profile.
• To add project stickers to each profile that's part of the Name Study.
• To complete a family tree branch for each individual. Try to find parents and grandparents; birth, marriage and death and children with solid [sources]. Consider using the [WikiTree Sourcer] extension on your browser.
• To identify famous individuals with any of the included surnames and have profiles for them @ WikiTree.

Questions:

When and from where did the families come to America?

Indications are that the Swartwout family are all descendants of one family that came from Groningen, The Netherlands. ^[1] There may be some in the US that came over later in the history. There is at least one Swarthout that came via the Dutch settlers in South Africa.

What was the original name?

Zwarte, also written swarte, a Dutch adjective, meaning black, and agreeing with the neuter substantive woude, also written wout, of the same language, signifying a wood or forest. There is also a Dutch noun, hout, expressing wood or timber as material. The Dutch words woud and hout are closely allied in meaning to the German terms wold or wald, and holt or holz.

It was the early census takers that really split the family up. They used their phonetic capabilities to write down the name as the head of the family said it. Dutch accents would have their impact on what was heard. And once they wrote it down for one family, they would use the same spelling with any of the related families they ran across. Of course, the census taker on the other side of the village or county may have written it differently, splitting the family on the spelling.

The first several generations of the family spoke Dutch and their records are recorded in that language. Some of the earliest written records we have in English are found in the 1790 census. In many of the following generations the number of individuals that may have been illiterate would have been higher, and many still would not have been comfortable speaking English. What the census taker wrote down could have been the first time they saw the name in print. It would have been this spelling that people would have used when applying for their Veterans' and Widows Benefits from the Revolutionary War or copied down in the family Bible.

The spelling Swartwout when heard in the Low Dutch Tongue, sounded like Swartwoudt and anyone not familiar with the Low Dutch Tongue, could easily hear it as Swartwood. In the early days of America, many people spelled words as they sounded. So the name Swartwout was often translated and written down as Swartwood. Given the close meanings and the very similar sounds, it's pretty easy to see how a census taker could have readily chosen any one of the four options. A breathy h or w would be easily missed, or the writer may have been attempting to Anglicize the name by changing the word to its English equivalent of wood.^{[2] [3]}

Sources

1. ↑ The Swartwout Chronicles
2. ↑ What's in A Name?
3. ↑ The Swartwout Chronicles

4. The Swartwout Chronicles