Where can i look up the bigining of my family name and trace it down to me?
You don’t trace your name. You trace your ancestors starting with yourself and working back documenting everything as you do. Very likely not everyone with your family name shares ancestors with you. Surnames were not taken or assigned in Europe until the last melennium. In England most people had one by the end of the 14th century. They were based on (1) being the son of someone (2) their occupation (3) where they lived and (4) some characteristic about them. Sons of John frequently became Johnson, JOnes or Johns but you can imagine how many men named John that had sons that either became Johnson, Jones or Johns. Occupational names were miller, smith, fisher, baker, taylor, barber, carpenter, wright, clark(clerk), etc etc etc. There were lots of men in those occupations. Men took the name of the town or castle they lived close to and they weren’t all related that did. Some men who had brown hair took the surname Brown along with lots of other fellas named Brown. When they got through
