A Short History of the Vance Surname

Different origins of the Vance name

Around the world today the surname "Vance" is found mainly in English-speaking countries like Australia, the UK and Ireland, Canada, and the United States.  The global spread of the Vance surname from the 1600s through to modern times has been documented through maps in our blog in a post from October 2013.

The paper document trails of these Vance family lines suggest that their family name came from one of two main origins:

1.  The Wentz/Wantz origins

Many of these families have traced their surname origins to original immigrants in the 18th or 19th century from Germany or Switzerland whose last name was Wentz or a variant like Wantz.  In their new English-speaking home, the last name sounded like "Vance", and either through regular usage or by the pen of a government official the new spelling stuck.

Several books (see Online Books of Interest) describe the origin of the Wentz surname as a diminutive of "Wenceslaus" or the German variant "Wenzo", and track the name's association with a Saint Wendelin and of course several kings named Wenceslaus, with variants "Wenzelo" from 1198 through "Wenzel" in the 1300s.  "Wentz" and "Wenz" were later variants appearing in the 1300s and 1400s near Basel in Switzerland and several locations in Germany.  Other sources cite Slavic variants like Vaclav but agree on the same basic timeline. 

The stories say an original Wentz family came out of Bohemia (part of the current Czech republic) or Pomerania (now part of Germany and Poland on the south Baltic Sea) and migrated into Bavaria in western Germany and to the city of Basel in Switzerland some 700 years ago.  These stories have so far not been verified.  In the 1700s and 1800s, however, several German and Swiss Wentz families immigrated to the US where the name became written as Vance.   
           

2.  The de Vaux/Vans origins

The majority of the Vances today, these families are either Irish or trace their surname to immigrants from Ireland, where "Vance" has been a Protestant name in Ulster since the 1600s.  The generally accepted origin of Vance in Ireland is from Scotland where the name was Vaus or Vans.  In 1860, a Scottish genealogist named William Balbirnie published a book that tied the Irish Vances back to a Rev. John Vans/Vance who lived in Kilmacrenan in county Donegal in Ireland from about 1617 onward, and connected him to a Vans family of minor nobility in Barnbarroch, Scotland.  The Vans of Barnbarroch have ties to the Vaux family of Dirleton near Edinburgh and from there back to the medieval de Vaux family who came over to England from Normandy with William the Conqueror around 1066. 

"de Vaux" was a Norman French place-name meaning "of the valleys", and although their exact origin in Normandy is unknown, the story of the de Vaux family in England and Scotland is fairly well-documented from the 11th century onward.  Legend ties the de Vaux family to the French/Italian de Baux family who themselves claimed a family tie back to Balthazar, one of the Magi Kings, but there remains no proof of any of those connections. 

The legends and facts surrounding the Vance origins from the de Vaux are covered in the book Path of a Family, which can be found under Online Books of Interest in our Useful Information section.

Modern DNA testing has suggested that the origins of the Irish Vances is not as simple as that proposed by Balbirnie, although one group of modern Vances has confirmed ties through DNA to the Vans of Barnbarroch and so to this general ancestry.  Whether the story is completely accurate, and whether other Vance family groups who trace their lines to Ireland have the same surname ancestry (as opposed to genetic ancestry) is unknown at this time.

3.  Other possible origins

Modern DNA testing has identified at least 9 different genetic origins (within the timeframe that surnames have been in common use) for the Vance families who have been tested so far.  While certainly some of those groups may still have derived their last names from the same origin, it is also very possible that some origins of the Vance name remain unknown. 

There is a town in Belgium named Vance and a local family of minor nobility named "de Vance" who lived there at least from the 11th through the 17th century.  However, the family name seems to have died out after that and no modern Vances trace their ancestry to this area.

Other towns in France have similar names, like Vancé in Sarthe and Vence on the Mediterranean, but these have different origins and no families with those names or anything similar to "Vance" are known to have come from those areas.

The Irish author John O'Hart proposed that the "Vance" name was derived from the Gaelic O'Uain, meaning lamb, but no evidence for this origin has been found.

Edward MacLysaght's book The Surnames of Ireland, a major reference work on Irish surnames, agrees that "Vance" first appeared in Ireland in the 17th century but says it came from Old English fenn meaning dweller by a fen (marsh) - an interesting idea, but then why did "Vance" only originate in Ireland and not also in England?  Mr. MacLysaght includes William Balbirnie's book in his bibliography but it is still unknown why he proposed this completely different theory (and offered no supporting evidence).  As far as is known today there is still no evidence of this origin from Old English.

Do you have other family stories for how your Vance ancestors got their last name?  Post them here - you may add another piece to this complicated puzzle!

66 comments:

  1. I'm a Vance! My family are all from Bevier Missouri....idk a lot about my lineage, but my paternal grandmother was Mary (Burris), who married Martin Vance...I believe the family lived in or around Marceline Missouri before that....

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    1. Interesting... it looks like Martin Vance was David Martin Vance (1936-1968), who was the son of John Vance (various dates) and Lillie Mae Lucas (1909-1994). John in turn was the son of William Newton Vance (1854-1934) and Sarah E. Chastine (1863-1933), and William was the son of Amos Vance (1820-?) and Nancy Griffin (1818-?). Most of these families lived in Macon county MO. It doesn't look like anyone has an earlier Vance line beyond Amos though!

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    2. David
      My name is Vance Julian. I was named after my grandfather Vance Judd Julian who was born in Clinton,Mo. He was named after his grandmother Mary Ann Vance. Mary Ann Vance married John Hall. Their daughter Jane Hall married Joseph William Julian. Their son was Vance Judd Julian

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    3. Hi Vance Julian! It looks like your Mary Ann Vance was the daughter of William Vance Sr (1806-1869) and Sarah Heaton (1816-1857). These Vances trace back to Samuel Vance (1728-1810) and Agnes Penquite (1730-1778), who are part of our Group 2b in the Vance DNA Project - meaning they came to the US from northern Ireland from a Vance line that had likely been there since the 1400s, though we don't know much more about them yet!.

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    4. Hello. My maiden name is Marcia Leigh Vance born in Louisville, MS 1976. My father's names is actually David Vance! He resides in Tennessee. His mother was Beatrice Reagan Vance . My birth mother was Thresea Dare Cooper. I have relations to people all over the US: Bunny Vance, Sam Vance, Janice Vance. I'm just beginning my lineage journey! Thanks for all of the great information.

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    5. Hi Marcia; I believe your grandparents were Orvie Topell Vance (1907-1981) and Beatrice Maude Reagan (1913-1997). If that's correct, the Vance Family Association has their Vance line back to Thomas Vance (b.c. 1760) from Londonderry, now Northern Ireland, whose sons emigrated to Mississippi. This Vance line is one of our Group 8 Vances in the Vance DNA Project!

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    6. my name is Lorie vance my dad was william james vance and his father was james vance from belfast ireland i need to know more about my dads family we are in canada he was born here in winnipeg manitoba his parents came here on a boat my grandmother was pregnant with him when they came to canada my grandmother name was emily but dont know her maiden name

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    7. Hi Lorie; I see your grandparents are likely James Vance (1886-1963) from Belfast and Emily Dalzell (1889-1928). James seems to have come from Belfast to Canada in 1912 (or perhaps first in 1912), though I also see a marriage record for him and Emily in 1919 just around the time William James Vance was born. That doesn't mean the story of your grandmother coming to Canada pregnant is wrong, it's very possible that James brought her over from Ireland in 1919 still!

      Do you have any brothers or uncles (brothers of your dad)? They would still carry the same Y-DNA that your grandfather James Vance did, and if they were willing to get their Y-DNA tested it might say what line of Vances James was from. Many of the Belfast Vances were from what we now call Groups 1b and 8 in the Vance DNA project, though we might not be able to identify James' exact father that way but it might help narrow down the choices!

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  2. I am a PROUD Vance decendant. My great grandmother is Bernice M. Vance, her father is George F. Vance (from Iowa), and his father is Bradley Vance (born in Indiana, died in iowa). Do you have any information on this line of Vance's?

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    1. So... George Frederick Vance (1874-1920) was married to Mamie McGlothen, and he was born to Bradley Vance (1836-1907) and Julie Brubaker (1832-1901). Bradley was born to James Vance (1794-1866) and Margaret E. Ennis (1795-1831). James was born to Joseph Vance (1753-1838) and Nancy Bradley (1764-1857). Traditional genealogy research has not uncovered Joseph's parents, but in the Vance DNA Project his descendants have been tested and form a branch of our Group 1b, which is a group that is known to have come from Ireland to the US, and from Scotland to Ireland before that.

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  3. I am a Vance descendant. My maternal grandparents were Benjamin Emmett Vance (Jul 10, 1885 - Aug 22, 1968) and Beulah Lucille Dever Vance (Feb 10, 1910 - Jul 21, 1968). My grandfather's parents were John Samuel Vance (Feb 22, 1844 - Mar 23, 1926) and Eva Catherine Senger Vance (Jan 18, 1852 - Aug 15, 1898). My great, great grandparents were Abraham Vance (Feb 22, 1822 - Dec 27, 1847) and Elizabeth (Swartz?) (Nov 2, 1821 - Dec 1, 1881).

    Does this sound familiar to anyone? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
    Thank you!

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  4. Hello Dave ,as Vances we have been following your very helpful responses to the comments above.My name is Thomas Vance and I have been able to trace my grandfathers through Knockbreda Church back to Adam Vance at Ballymaconaghy County Down in the 1790's but here the trail ends!The grave yard at Drumbo County Down does not have any records of the burials.
    Any help you might be able to give us to point us on the right path would be most appreciated. tomvance1938@gmail.com

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    1. Hi Thomas congratulations on getting that far back! As you surely know, Irish records earlier than the 1790s are very rare; we rely mostly on William Balbirnie's book (not his assumptions of how the Vances fit together but more his compilation of available records at that time and actual people around in the mid-1800s) and then of course census substitutes or whatever fragments of other records have survived.

      Was Adam Vance in the Church of Ireland (COI)? The COI parish register list (https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers/ParishRegisters/PARISHREGISTERS.pdf) says that Drumbo Parish records go back to 1791; many of those have been indexed by Rootsireland.ie which is a paid site but you might find them there; otherwise that PDF I linked above says whether the original registers are held locally or centrally by the Church, and you might be able to track them down.

      Otherwise you might seriously consider Y-DNA testing, since I'm guessing you yourself are a patrilineal (male-line) descendant of Adam Vance or if not that you might still have some in your family. Many of the early County Down Vances were members of our Group 1b group in the Vance DNA Project (see https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about/results and scroll down to the table for the very long Group 1 report!) and we know a lot about them and we're closing in on more; that might not give you the names of Adam's immediate parents but testing might connect you into one of those branches - or if not Group 1b, then we'd know which of the other groups in the project you connect to!

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  5. Dear Dave,
    Thank you for your very prompt reply.My information about my grandfathers mostly came from Knockbreda COI parish church.Your comment about Drumbo Parish explains why there are no burial records although I attended my grandfather Thomas Vance's funeral at Drumbo when I was a small boy.
    Thank you for your suggestions which I will follow up.
    Tom

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    1. Dave, last October I contacted you about my grandfathers going back to 1794.
      You gave me some helpful guidance then which I tried to follow up. I joined Ancestry on line in the hope that they might be able to help further but so far I have reached the same impasse of Adam and Susanne Vance 1790-1794 at Ballymaconaghy County Down.I would certainly consider Y-DNA testing. How do I do that? (Ancestry did do a DNA test but I have not been given the results) I am keen to try and move my research on and wonder if joining the Vance Family Association would help.As I am struggling I would value your advice please.Tom

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  6. Hi i was trying to find who my great-grandparents are. My grandfather is james vance and grandmother was etta. Grandfather was born in logan west Virginia in 1906 or 1904. He worked in coal mines and had 5 sons and 1 daughter. My fathers name is Roy Vance. My grandfather James Vance became a pastor or was one when he worked in mines. Both parents and grandparents have passed and my son was asking me about the history but i am clueless. Hope you can shed some light on this for us. Thank you.

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    1. Hi! Is your father Roy Nathan Vance Sr (1933-2008)? If so, his father was James Woodrow Vance (b. abt 1906) and Etta M. Bryant (1906-1989). James's parents were William M. Vance (1883-1966) and Mary J. Luther (1884-1908). William was the son of Monteville Vance (1858-1900) and Rhoda Marshall (b. 1862), and Monteville was the son of Addison Vance Sr. (b. 1833) and Sarah "Sally" Curry (1834-1859).

      This line is documented by the Vance Family Association and descends from Abner Vance and Susannah Howard through their son Richard Vance. Abner of course is perhaps the best-known Vance in this line from his murder trial in Abingdon and his eventual hanging there in 1819.

      If you're a Facebook user, there is a group devoted to descendants of Abner and Susannah here https://www.facebook.com/groups/692661887461090 that might be a good way to connect with distant relatives.

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    2. Hi Dave, yes my father is Roy Nathan Vance. I so appreciate the information. Thank you so very much.

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  7. I'm Terry Vance. My father was Roy Wentworth Vance, son of Francis Delano Vance. My grandmother's maiden name was Head. I don't know much further lineage than that.

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    1. Terry hi and apologies for the lateness of my reply. If you were willing to join the Vance Family Association (vancefamilyassociation.org) they have your line on file, but Francis's parents were John A Vance (1854-1934) and Olive A Brown (1866-1907), John's parents were Hamilton R Vance (1833-1885) and Elizabeth Westfall (1837-1910), and Hamilton's parents may have been were Jacob R Wantz/Vance and his second wife Margaret Price (1815-1904). It is likely but not certain that you descend from one of the Wentz Vance lines from Germany and if you took a Y-DNA test with Family Tree DNA you would likely fall into either Groups 5, 7, or 10 (which are our German Vance lines). We could tell you more about your older ancestry depending on which of those groups you matched but you can read about what we know of those groups in their current reports at https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about/results

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  8. Hello...My name is Bonnie Smith.
    I have been working on my family genealogy for 22 years. I have made it back prior to 990AD on several lines. I am currently stuck on a line that has led me to Vance on my Mother's side. My mother Marlene Ruth Phillips, 3rd great grandfather James Murray, his parents Daniel Murray & Mary Rannells, Mary Rannells parents William Rannells Born Abt. 1715-1720 Ireland & Jane (Vance)?? Born Abt. 1720 Ireland. Do you have any information that might support this? I have the Wills of William & Jane dated 1794 & 1797 recorded in Hampshire County, West Virginia, USA. I have located church records from 1782 with the names of Colville and Vance being among neighbors and friends. I have hit a dead end with this line for years...Thanks for any help.

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    1. Hi Bonnie - we believe Jane Vance (1720-1797) was the daughter of David Vance Senior (c.1680-1750) and Sarah Colville (c. 1680-?). From tested descendants, David was of the line we call Group 1b in the Vance DNA Project, which means we can narrow down his ancestry to a few known Vance families in Ireland but we don't know yet specifically which one. He may have been from the William Vance of Aughavea line that William Balbirnie describes in his book from 1860; this is still a work in progress though!

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    2. Thanks so much Dave...finally a little progress on this line. And I do have the book by Balbirnie.

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    3. Hi. I have been trying to trace our mitochondrial DNA for my granddaughter. I have been able to trace back to an Elizabeth Vance,1729 ? 1731 birth date. Death was 1809 in Vanceburg, Kentucky. She was married to Edward Doyle, 1735-1833. I found this information but this is my dead end. My grandmother was Williametta May Kelly.
      History of
      Elizabeth
      When Elizabeth Vance
      was born about 1729, in
      Ireland, her father, John
      David Vance, was 17 and
      her mother, Elizabeth
      Colville, was 16. She had
      at least 8 sons and 3
      daughters with Edward
      Doyle. She immigrated
      to Frederick, Virginia,
      British Colonial America
      in 1732 and lived in Winchester, VA in 1760. She died in Lewis ,Kentucky and was buried in Vanceburg, Kentucky…

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  9. Hello there. My name is Melanie Vance and I have very limited information about my family history. I was born to David Vance from Houston Texas (4/9/54-11/14/18.) His mother was Wanza Nell Pou Vance. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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    1. Hi Melanie and welcome to the blog. Wanza Nell Pou was married to Clovis Woodrue Vance (1919-1990); he was the son of Eugene Vance (1899-1975) and Ninnie Mae Chapman (1899-1978). This Vance line traces back to a George Vance (1710-1768) who emigrated from Ireland to Frederick, VA. We know from testing other descendant lines from George that he was part of our Group 1a in the DNA project, who are descended from junior sons of the Vans of Barnbarroch line from Galloway in Scotland before Ireland and although we don't know where George specifically emigrated from these Vances lived mostly around Donegal town in southern Donegal county in Ireland.

      You can read more about what we know of the prehistoric and more recent history of Group 1a and its parallel Y-DNA line Group 1b in our DNA Project Report on Group 1 at https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about/results if you scroll down to the table and select the "Current Report". The Vance Family Association (http://vancefamilyassociation.org/) also has genealogy information on your specific line back to George!

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    2. Thank you so much Dave! You made my night!

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  10. I just discovered this blog, and I'm just beginning to do a little more family research, so I'm glad to see that others have done so much work before. As you can see, I'm another David Vance.

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  11. Hi. My name is Deborah K Vance. Been working on ancestry site working towards building a family tree. My great grandfather's name was William Lewis Vance and my great grandmother's name is Laura Johnson Vance of Ashland, Boyd, Kentucky. I am trying to trace my grandfather's lineage. I have found a death certificate for my great grandfather and it has his parents names as Alex and Ormine Vance. Is their anyway that you could help me discover which group we are in. My papaw always has told us that he had Cherokee blood as well. Would love to be able to trace this back as well. Would greatly appreciate any and all help!

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    1. You can also contact me at deedee197509@gmail.com if anyone has more information!

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  12. Barbara granddaughter of JW VanceNovember 9, 2022 at 9:53 AM

    My Grandmother (nee Jean Wiseheart) was married to JW Vance, who was from the vicinity of Summerville, KY. She did extensive research of both her lineage and my Papaw’s, unfortunately her work seems to have vanished after the death of my brother. I’ve repeatedly asked for it from his son, to no avail. We are not close.

    My mother (Nee Linda Vance) journied with my Aunt to visit the Vance Cemetery in KY, and bought 2 plots. She said it was where many of our Vance ancestors were buried, and she told me stories about a few of them.

    Evidently my Papaw’s father was an itinerant preacher who was brutally abusive, and at age 14 JW drove his mom and sisters across the state line to Indiana, where they ended up in the Anderson, IN area. I know my Great Uncle “Chick” and Papaw’s sister Louise lived around Anderson when I was a child- we would visit during Thanksgiving.

    My mom said we were descended from N.E. Europe (Norway? Sweden? Netherlands?) through Normandy, then somehow to Scotland. Papaw would tell me stories of his family coming through the Cumberland Gap to settle in Eastern KY. I also heard there was a Cherokee wife; she supposedly married an ancestor to avoid being sent to Oklahoma, and losing their land. My daughter has done DNA analysis though, and that bloodline isn’t significant enough to show up.

    I asked my elders what “J” stands for (since I was corrected when I thought it was Jay); evidently JW is all there is. I’d like to know what Vance group we belong to. Anyone have a clue?

    All replies welcome. I’m not sure how notifications work on this site, so feel free to contact me at qu3rcusa@gmail.com

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    1. I'll send you an email also, but your Papaw's first name may really have been Jay. He was born in 1916 and in the 1920 census he is listed as "JW Vance" alongside his father Arthur Jackson Vance (1888-1971) and his mother Gladys Neal (1898-1969). He was also listed as Jay W Vance in the newspaper report of his marriage to Jeannette Wiseheart, and on his death certificate. He is listed as Jay on his tombstone as well; he and Jeanette are buried in Anderson Memorial Park
      Anderson, Madison County, Indiana.

      The only clue to a different name is on the 1930 US census where he is listed as James W Vance. While that's possible, the census takers often got children's names wrong so it's only a possibility that his first name was James. If that was the case he certainly never used it through his lifetime even up to his tombstone.

      This Vance line goes back to our DNA Group 4 in the Vance/Vans/Wentz Y-DNA project meaning that the earliest known Vance ancestor is Patrick Vance (1745-1810) and Elizabeth McCray (1747-1819) who lived in Kentucky. We do not have any significant information on Patrick's Vance origins before Kentucky but it's certainly possible they came from Scotland; however your family's story that the Vances were descended from N.E. Europe through Normandy into Scotland sounds like the "usual" stories of the origin of the Vance surname in the British Isles; the story is interesting but unproven and we know that many DNA lines (including Group 4) are not connected to the known Scottish line of Vances.

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  13. I've been working on my Vance lineage for the past 5 years and am fairly confident I've correctly traced my line back to David Vance (1783-1819) from Wigtownshire, Scotland. I haven't found a family connection to the Irish Vance's- however my ancestry DNA clearly shows a strong Irish lineage on my paternal side. Any suggestions or preferable a completed tree available

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    1. John Vans was sent from Scotland to Northern Ireland around 1610..He was the first to use the spelling..Vance…from there goes John..Lancelot..John..Andrew who came thru Philidelphia in the early 1700s approx 1730 with three sons and a daughter..they eventually settled near Winchester WVa..Frederick County….offspring went in every direction..some stayed near Frederick County. Mine stayeduntil the Civil War then went to Missouri.

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  14. Sorry, the anonymous post above regarding David Vance was me

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  15. My Grandfathers name was Ralph, and his son was named Ralph as well. Grandpa served in WW2. We settled in Arkansas 1980s. My dad said we had relatives around Hickman KY, and south into TN but we didn't meet them much if at all. He often spoke of "Nanny" who was a cook on a riverboat, and a faithful woman who was well regarded in Hickman.

    Our particular line looks like it will end as Wyatt nor I have any sons.

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    1. Troy thanks for writing and showing your Vance history. If you have any dates when they were born, died, etc I might be able to look them up and tell you something about your earlier Vance history, but there were certainly many Vance families in Kentucky. Congrats on your grandfather's service and thanks again for documenting them!

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  16. My grandfather lived in Kentucky when he met my grandmother but he died before my dad was born and my dad never knew him. I think he was originally from Missouri. His name was John Vance and married Sarah McDowell. I really don't know much or how to get started ,any suggestions?

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    1. Hi! Sorry for the delay in responding. Your grandfather may have been John Lyle Vance (1906-1930) who married Sarah McDowell (1908-1984); they did live in Kentucky but also in Missouri at times and John apparently died in St. Louis, MO.

      John Lyle Vance was the son of John Adam Vance (1871-1958) and Dora Lou Toadvine (1871-1963) from Missouri, and John Adam was the son of John Brown Vance (1823-1883) and Elizabeth Frances Bates (1837-1911), also from Missouri.

      The Vance Family Association (VFA) has this Vance line that far, then it gets a little fuzzy. John Brown Vance may have been the son of Jordan Vance (1791-1831) and Mary "Polly" Vance (1791-1829); the VFA has them also but doesn't have John Brown shown as their son though other researchers do.

      If your Vances connect into Jordan Vance, his Vance line is Group 11 in our Vance DNA Project (https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about) which is actually a Vance line that we know little about except that they originally came from near Glasgow in Scotland around 1500AD!

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  17. My father was Kenneth Franklin Vance, Jr, my grandfather was Kenneth Franklin Vance, Sr. We lived in Phoenix Arizona but they often spoke of "Vanceburg Kentucky" - I got the childhood impression that my grandparents (Grace Steger was my grandmother, my father's brother was Jeff Davis Vance) came from there and that their ancestors originally migrated from Vance, France to England/Scotland, then to America and started farming in Kentucky. I am Peggy Lee Vance on my birth certificate. Are any of you related to me?

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    1. Hi! As near as I can figure, your Kenneth Franklin Vance Sr. was the son of Elon Vance (1883-1942) and Stella Wilson (1886-1962) and on census records they came from Georgetown in Scott Co, KY. There is a Vanceburg KY about 90 miles away from there but that doesn't mean they couldn't also have called their corner of Georgetown "Vanceburg" or they might certainly have even lived in Vanceburg for a time. Elon was the son of Jefferson Davis Vance (1862-1944) and Mary Frances Hughes (1862-1944) (hence your uncle's name) and Jefferson was the son of John William Vance, Sr. (1826-1918) and Nancy "America" Devers (1831-1904).

      This Vance line goes back to a Patrick Vance Sr. (1745-1810) and Elizabeth McCray (1747-1819) who are represented in our Vance DNA Project at https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about; they're part of Group 4 which you can read about in the Current Report in the table on the Results page. They're a Vance line from Ireland which may have originated in Scotland certainly.

      The traditional history of "Vance" shown on this "Short History of the Surname" page here is the old one about coming from France to England then Scotland etc, and it's been passed down through many Vance lines. As far as we know today only our Group 1 in the DNA project is directly tied to that ancestry but even for them it's unclear if the complete story is accurate, so we may never know the full details!

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  18. My grandmother was a Vance; her father's name was Charles William Vance and he was born in Crookston, Minnesota in 1879. My grandmother told me that her father was of Irish and Dutch descent. She said that in 1901, he travelled to Canada to take part in the Klondike gold rush. He ended up working on the Dominion Telegraph Line, which linked Vancouver to Dawson City. He sent money home and was able to put two of his sisters through school, with one becoming a doctor and the other a nurse. He hauled the mail with a dog team from Telegraph Creek to Atlin and also worked as a foreman for the BC Department of Highways. He passed away in Telegraph Creek August 16, 1947.

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    1. Thanks for writing! It's hard to know for sure if this information is accurate because it's on Ancestry, but the trees seem well-researched. This Charles William Vance appears to be the son of Charles A. Vance (b. 1852) and Catherine Smith (b. 1855) who lived in Clay, Tuscarawas, OH where Charles W. was born. Charles A. Vance is listed in the 1860 OH census at the same location as the son of John Vance (b. c. 1825) and Mary ? (b. c. 1826).

      John and Mary are both listed there as having been born in Prussia, and their older sister Caroline (aged 10) is listed as born in Ohio. Census records are notoriously inaccurate about birth locations (and ages) but if we accept that at face value, John and Mary emigrated from Prussia before 1850 so relatively young. That might also mean John's original surname was "Wentz" and it was anglicized to Vance which was not uncommon (with the German "W" pronounced as "V").

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  19. Hi I'm Rose vance.my father is Everett apple vance. Brother george vance,sisters nettie vance and hessie vance.my grandfather was apple vance and his wife was rose vance.can u tell me a little bit of my hereitage;

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    1. Hi Rose; there are a lot of Appie Vances and Meekin Vances to weed through but I believe your grandfather was Absolom Monroe "Appie" Vance (1891-1948) who married Rosa/Rosie Sheppard (1893-1963). Appie's parents were Meekin S Vance (1869-1929) and Elizabeth Stevens (1870-1957). Meekin was the son of Andrew J Vance Sr and Rebecca Hensley; Andrew was the son of Meekin Vance Sr and Phoebe Workman, and Meekin Sr was the son of Richard Vance, the son of Abner Vance and Susannah Howard. Abner was hanged for murder in 1819 in Abingdon, VA and somewhat of a famous Vance!

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  20. Sorry apple vance

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  21. Don't know why it's comming out apple..it's appie...

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  22. George Raymond VanceSeptember 2, 2023 at 1:45 PM

    Hi from George Raymond Vance
    Dad was George Vance junior gramps was George Vance.

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    1. Welcome George Raymond! We have a lot of ancestors named George Vance unfortunately. Can you tell me more about their birth or death dates, middle names, or their wives' names? That would help track down the right ones!

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  23. Hi. I'm Jennifer Vance, daughter of Richard Lee Vance, granddaughter of Lee Andrew Vance. The furthest I have gotten in my family is Thomas M Vance,
    born on November 12, 1814, in
    Warren, Kentucky. He had one
    son with Christina Stricklin in
    1861. He died on January 21,
    1884, in Benton, lllinois, at the
    age of 69. I'd love to find more!

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    1. Interesting! As near as I can find we don't know a lot about this Kentucky Vance line. Thomas M Vance's father may also have been a Thomas M Vance, though I'm not certain about the research there.

      If you have any brothers or male cousins descended from Vance men, they may carry a Y chromosome that would place them in our Y-DNA project if they were willing to take a Y-DNA test!

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  24. Hi Dave Vance, my great 👍🏼 grand-mother was Louisa Vance, and her father's name was George Frederick Vance. She also had a sister called Agnes Michel. Both sister married Horace Edgar Bowles, my great grandfather

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    1. An interesting Vance line! I see Louisa's father as George Hamilton Vance, but he could have carried both middle names too. Louisa's mother was Marie Emilie Michel and they were from Dukinfield in England. One interesting part is that George's father appears to be a George Vance Smith (or Vance-Smith?) though I don't know the story of how the surnames changed!

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  25. Could it be the same George Frederick Vance you mention in an earlier post?

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  26. Hi I'm Jeremy. Great grandson of Charles Edward Vance and Helen Vance from Illinois. Nice to meet all you other Vances!

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    1. Hi Jeremy! If that's Helen who was born Helen Fern Wallace, your great-grandfather (1910-1991) descended from a line of Vances that came from Ireland but we're (the VFA) not sure which of our known lines they fit into! The earliest ancestor that we know of in your line is a William Vance who was born in Ireland around 1786 and died in Addison, OH in 1861; he was married to a Sarah McMullin (1795-1896). But since you appear to be a patrilineal descendant (male-only line which passes on the Y chromosome in your DNA), if you took a Y-DNA test it's very likely we could connect your Vances to one of our Irish Vance lines!

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  27. My husbands father was adopted by his stepfather. His real father was Norba Vance, a boxer from Oklahoma. My husbands father passed away a few years ago and I am wanting to find my children’s relatives for them.

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    1. Norba Frederick Vance (1906-1972) was the son of Charles Claude Vance (1885-1959) and Stella Eva Luntsford (1886-1981), and besides Norba they had another son Paul Pemberton Vance (1905-1958) and a daughter Ruby Margaret Ann Vance (1908-1966). Charles was a descendant of Samuel Vance (1716-1778) and Sarah Colville (1715-1792) from Virginia, who are part of our DNA Group 1b and hail from the north of Ireland.

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  28. There were a ton of Vances in Newton County, Mississippi. They all came from Londonderry, Northern Ireland in the mid 1800s

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    1. You're right! The Vance DNA project has been able to match the Vances who came to Newton County MS with what we call Group 8 in the project. You can read about Group 8 in the current report on the project website! (Google "Vance DNA Project" and once you're at the project website, choose "About" and then look for the "Results" page; scroll down and you'll find a table with the current reports!

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    2. I’ve taken the BigY700 dna test. Can upload the results in that group?

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    3. Congrats on your Big Y700! If you're not already in the Vance DNA project and you descend in a male line from Vance ancestors (so your Y-DNA would likely be one of the Vance lines that we track), we can match you up with the Vance Y-DNA lines that we already know something about. Go to https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about and click on the "Join" button on the upper right hand side of the page within the banner graphic to join!

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  29. Hello Dave, my name is Randy Vance (Randolph), I am from Ohio originally where I can trace the Vance Line of my family back several generations via family history, ancestry and a couple other resources. I know my 3rd Great Grandfather was Lewis Vance (1816-1876). I believe from other Ancestry Trees and such that his father was Davis Vance (SR) 1786-1837, his father was Thomas Vance, 1742-1810. From what I have read, Thomas was believed to have been born in the US in Chester County, PA, the son of William Vance (1712-1750) and Elizabeth Backhouse. It shows that William was from Derrycreevy, Clonfeacle, Tyrone, Ireland. After William I have not leads. Can you confirm that linage I have is correct and do you have any information on the leg of the Vance Family. I would be more than happy to share my Ancestry DNA results with you. Thanks for your assistance!

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    1. Hi Randy and thanks for your query. The VFA does show Lewis Vance as a descendant of William Vance and Elizabeth Backhouse. They are some of the best-documented Vance immigrants into the US (partly thanks to Quaker records) and we know they came from Clonfeacle but we don't have definite generations before them.

      William Balbirnie documents a George Vance who emigrated in the 1600s to Clonfeacle (he says from Wigton in northern England (not Wigtown in southern Scotland)) and while the common location is certainly suggestive there is nothing specific to link him to William.

      We do have William's Vance descendants in the DNA project, they are our Group 6 and you can read the Current Report on them at this website https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/vance/about/results if you scroll down to the Group 6 section. His Vances so far do not have a definite origin but unusually for the Vance surname they appear to come from Wales, and their closest patrilineal relatives are from the Bassett surname. Whether William's immediate ancestors were Bassetts though and how they got from Wales to Ireland (or perhaps to northern England) is still unknown.

      Your AncestryDNA test is called an "autosomal" DNA test, it's a great test but reports completely different information from the Y-DNA tests we use in the DNA Project to trace Vance lines, so unfortunately I can't use it to match you with Group 6. If you did take a Y-DNA test we could confirm that you also fall into that group though (if you felt that was important or if you wanted to see what it showed).

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  30. Hello Dave, thank you for the quick response and the information that you provided on Group 6. I will look into the Y-DNA testing although I am 99% sure that I am of the line Vance that comes from William Vance. It's unfortunate that there is just no real conclusive informationn that shows the ancestry prior to William. I may be heading off to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England later this year. Is there any additional places that you would suggest checking into or have they mostly been exhausted? Thanks again for all of your hard work and information on the Vance Family.

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  31. Hi I'm Vivian vance

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