Welcome to EarnestGen!
When I found out that my biological grandfather was an Earnest, I knew absolutely nothing about the surname or its people. Over time, I've been able to learn quite a lot, enough to realize that there is still so much to be learned and so few resources to learn from.
I managed to use my Ancestry.com account along with some trips to the public library and a lot of effort to trace my Earnest heritage to around 1610, with a fair degree of confidence, but honestly I felt a bit lucky. Most of the Earnests I would come across in my research seemed to be unrelated to me and mine. I would easily find books about an Isaac Earnest and his relatives, which for a while gave me hope and excitement - I thought I was finding my ancestors - only to be disappointed in realizing that there was no connection and I was back to square one. Over time I realized that there were at least four different Earnest families that looked to all be unrelated to each other. I felt bad that so little was known about my own family ancestry, so I decided to put as much information together as I could and make it easily available for anyone to find.
But let me say a little more about these four seemingly unrelated families. I've given them each a unique name to help everyone organize their information a little more clearly. Frankly, in today's world, with the sheer number of people alive, it isn't enough to just say "I'm looking for my Earnest ancestors". You have to be more specific and more organized, otherwise you're only likely to get lost and maybe even give up. I sincerely hope that classifying these four families this way proves to be a help to experienced and aspiring family historians.
The four family descriptions are as follows:
- The Virginia Line - This is the Family I descend from. It follows the descendants of the William Earnest who lived in Isle of Wight Co. Virginia in the 1650's. Primary locations for this family include Virginia, Georgia and Florida.
- The Issac Line - This is perhaps the most common of the Earnest families, I believe theirs may be the one primarily located in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois etc. This family may have arrived in America in the 1600's or 1700's.
- The Canadian Line - I know almost nothing about this family line other than seeing some forum threads about a heritage of Earnests in Ontario and Manitoba. There may be a possible connection between the Issac and Canadian lines however, I did see some comments about a link between the Canadian family and Pennsylvania.
- The German Line - Basically all the Earnests appear to have come from Germany (Earnest is predominately described by Ancestry and other sources as being a German name). However, there is a family heritage that descends from a Jakob Ernst who emigrated from Germany in 1909. This makes the German Line in America the youngest of all the Earnest families, and perhaps the smallest.
Personally, I am descended from the Virginia Line and all the information posted in blog posts and on the Family Chart/Earnest Line pages will feature the Virginia Line family. Each blog post will showcase all story information, records, etc., that I have been able to find, for each individual in this family. I hope you will look forward to these stories.
But this place is for anyone of the Earnest surname. Please feel free to use the EarnestGen Forum for any and all Earnest families. I hope anyone will feel at home on EarnestGen to find the information they are looking for.
Once again, welcome to EarnestGen.
