Had long thought I was Scottish (the Hamilton clan is the 2nd most noble clan in Scotland), then German as some people I'm closely related to are German, having the last name Wentz and thought to descend from "Good King Wenceslas" and the Will of the first USA Hamilton ancestor of mine is written in German, around the year 1776, but I still yet might be Scottish, because that is what was handed down verbally. I'm thinking my German ancestors crossed through Scotland.
I'm not a Hamilton, but a Vance though Hamilton is Scottish, while Vance can be Scottish or German. I have no Hamilton that I'm related to by DNA on DNA record that I know of. It just so happens that in 1770 the name Vans was changed to Vance in Scotland. Here is a link to the
Vans crest: https://www.scotclans.com/scottish-cl…/clan-vans/vans-crest/
Why Vance and not Hamilton? My DNA shows many close genetic links, within a few generations, to both the Wentz and Vance family. Wentz is German however, but many Germans were given the Anglicized name Vance when they came to America. Both Vance and Wentz surnames must be related to me according to my DNA, but which country, as I am closely related to several people with the Wentz surname?
So German or Scottish, it's hard to say! Best support for the Scottish tale is that the 4 most closely related people to me have the last name Vance not Wentz, and their most distant ancestors do not have Wentz either, meaning their lineage is more closely Vance than Wentz. The DNA says this about my 4 closest Vance relatives "A 36/37 match between two men who share a common surname (or variant) indicates a close genealogical match. Very few people achieve this close level of a match, and it is within the range of most well-established surname lineages in Western Europe."
