Fiander surname origins
Surname: Fiander. Family from Newfoundland but not sure before that. Does anyone know the ethnic origins of this name. Is it British?
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The first Fiander arrived in Newfoundland from Dorset in the late 1700s as you can see at http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=demacintyre&id=I8474. However, the actual origin of the surname is undetermined as discussed at http://tr.im/xQc6.
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Thanks so much for your response.
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My mother is a Fiander, originally from English Hr. West in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland. Her family (and all of the Nfld. Fianders as far as can be determined) are descendants of a Samuel Fiander, who emigrated from the village of Milton Abbas, Dorset, England in the mid-late 1700s. Another member of same Milton Abbas Fianders later emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.The name "Samuel" has been (and continues to be) quite common for Fiander males in Nfld.The Fiander surname itself, though English, very likely has Norman French origins.
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