Culbert One-Name Study

(Click on picture to enlarge) Jim Culbert

Culbert
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Culbert One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
DNA project
Links
Contact Details

About the Culbert One-Name Study

The CULBERT One-Name study commenced in 2004. It is in the beginning stages of data collection, currently focusing on the survey of birth, marriage, death, and census records worldwide to establish a basic foundation of linkages between the various Culbert family branches before undertaking more detailed research on individuals.

I am looking for CULBERT researchers in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand to help me with this study. If interested, please contact me.

Variants

There are no registered variants of this surname with the Guild of One-Name Studies.

In Ireland, the surname CULBERT may stem from CULBHEART, which is said to be a Gaelic form of 'crafty'. Crafty is related to 'wisdom,' which is a Gaelic form of CUTHBERT, and this may suggest there is a connection between these surnames. I have personally found evidence in Ireland that the CULBERT, CULBERTSON and CUTHBERTSON surnames are sometimes used interchangeably. Those who bore these names in Ireland came originally from Scotland. However, despite traditions indicating that these CULBERT immigrants to Ireland were from Covenanter stock that came from Scotland in the late 1600s, it is more likely that the CUTHBERTSONs from Scotland settled in Ireland at a much earlier time, and they were the ancestors of many of the later Irish CULBERTSONs.

CULBRATH is an eighteenth century variant of CULBERT in County Monaghan, Ireland according to researcher Dale Leppard.

It is also believed that CULBERT is derived from CUTBERT, and this earlier spelling is very similar to CUTHBERT and CUTHBERTSON, and another possible reason for the close relationship between these surnames.

Origin of the surname

The origins of this surname are uncertain. CULBERT families are known in Ireland since the 1400s in the province of Munster, according to researcher Dale Leppard. Edward MacLysaght, in his 1999 book, The Surnames of Ireland, 6th Ed., Irish Academic Press, (Dublin, Ireland and Portland, Oregon, USA), states that CULBERT is of Huguenot (French Protestant) origin, and found mainly in Ireland's northern province of Ulster. If this is correct, it would suggest that the CULBERTs left France with great numbers of other Huguenots destined for other parts of Europe and the British Isles in the years following the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris on 24 Aug 1572.

In France today the CULBERT surname is not common, and it is the COLBERT surname that is more prevalent. Few links have been found between CULBERT and COLBERT. The COLBERT surname is the subject of a separate study being conducted by Jen Colbert-Davies. She can be reached at email: jlcd at hotmail.co.uk. A June 2003 version of her COLBERT website can be found at the link below.

Early CULBERT records are also found in Scotland. In Scotland, CULBERT is associated particularly with County Fife. It is a variant of Old English CEOLBEORHT according to Dr. George F. Black in his 1946 book, Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning and History, New York Public Library, 12th printing (1999), p. 190, ISBN 0-87104-172-3.

Over time, CULBERTs in Europe, and particularly from Ireland and Scotland, left their homes for the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and can now be found in many other countries throughout the world. Because most of the early Culbert records are found in Ireland and Scotland, I have developed a website to share information about CULBERT connections there (see link below).