What started off in 1998 as a simple exercise has become a sizeable hobby. The relative uniqueness of the name was perhaps, the key motivation for us to embark upon a project to trace our ancestors. Like the beanstalk, it just keeps growing. We estimate there may be fewer than 100 people alive today who enjoy the Isger surname. The majority live in England. There are a few descendants in the United States and there is one small branch with the family surname in Western Australia with another in New Zealand and that is it or so we believe! Surnames are not sacrosanct and possibly did not evolve until the 13th century often being generated from parent's names [patronymics] or occupations. The Isger name goes back for centuries in England and at least 160 years in the United States. Marriages have brought Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Australian and South African families to the clan. Our name may have its origins either from the Anglo Saxons or the Vikings. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes began their migration from Germany and Denmark to Britain in 410AD. By derivation 'Is' translated from Anglo-Saxon as iron whilst 'Gar' or 'Ger' seems to have meant strong or hard. In old high German, the transalation is iron and spear. Anglo Saxons did not use surnames. The first Viking attack on Britain is recorded in 789AD. In Scandinavia, we are told 'Is' translated as ice and 'Ger' meant warrior or soldier. Whether this means our ancestors were warriors or artisan workers with the metal, we will never know. Using patronymics, Isger is still a fairly common German first name which may lend a little more weight to the theory that our ancestors originally arrived from Europe in the middle ages. What seems certain is that the Isger name has roots long established in Britain. To date we have traced our Isger ancestors back to the seventeenth century with our forefathers having or acquiring skills particularly in the cloth trade and then the railway industry through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Isger is an unusual name