Rowina (20 Jan 2012)
"descent from House of
David"
One of these names, Pollok, is my grandmother's
name. There are various spellings of Pollock, and various
stories about how the name originated.
The family Pollok is said to have taken the name in the 12th
century when they were given lands in Scotland by King David I
of Scotland, along with other
Anglo-Breton refugees from a succession war in England.
Clan Pollock website says that they took the name after the name
of the location where they
settled. I think a possible explanation is that they took
this name from a combination of the French which they spoke and
the local name for lakes. Thus:
"peu" (small) de Lachs (lakes in Gaelic).
And then there is the frequent claim that the modern Scottish
name Pollock and the Jewish name Pollak have different roots.
I put this snippet of information forward to show that
names are deceptive, and one cannot be entirely sure where they
came from.
But other details of the history of the Polloks makes me think
they easily could have been of partial Jewish descent. Was
this descent maternal or paternal or both?
In any case, very mixed. They were not wholly Jewish even
if they were partly Jewish. Which "counts" in determining
descent from David, the maternal or the paternal line? In
Bible times, it would have been the paternal line, but would it
be the maternal line today, which is the usual descent counter
among modern rabbis?
The founder of the Pollok line in Scotland, Peter, sometimes
signed his name on documents as "Peres", which is not only a
Jewish name from the Old Testament,
but it the name of one of Judah's twin sons by Tamar. I
have found documents showing that this name "Peres" or "Perez"
was repeated in generations of the family living in Renfrewshire
and Lanarkshire. Usually the people in question were
"sheriffs", so there were documents preserved about their
activities, and in the early,
wealthier years they gave land to various priories and abbeys in
the area, and the donation records listed their names. I
recently saw a study online by a Scottish
Ph.D. discussing the INTENSELY VARIED racial and cultural
backgrounds of the people who lived in early medieval Scotland,
particularly in the midland and borders regions.
Bingo! Corroborates what I've seen elsewhere and put
together myself as a thesis. There is lots more where that
came from.
Well, Doves, this may be of little interest to you considering
the momentous times and struggles we face, to discern who has a
tiny bit of King David inhabiting his or her genes. I just
wanted to say that this IS interesting, very interesting to me
when I try to figure out why I am the way I am, but it is as
nothing in our consideration of our salvation. Being a
child of God is THE important thing, not whether any of us are
descended from David or from other Jews of his period.
But I am grateful for the list of modern Jewish people's names
who are descended from David. Thanks!
Mariel (I just found out from the Scottish Ph.D. that my
"aunt" in the early middle ages actually spelled her name Muriel
rather than Mauricle, as most weblinks have it. Pretty
close to my Mariel. The proof is the documents collected
by the Ph.D. referencing donations by the Pollok, with Muriel
Pollok being a donor, as she
was the heir of Peter (Peres) de Pollok.