Best Family History
- Best Name Meaning
- English, northern Irish, and French: from Middle English, Old French beste ‘animal’, ‘beast’ (Latin bestia), applied either as a metonymic occupational name for someone who looked after beasts—a herdsman— or as a derogatory nickname for someone thought to resemble an animal, i.e. a violent, uncouth, or stupid man. It is unlikely that the name is derived from best, Old English betst, superlative of good. By far the most frequent spelling of the French surname is Beste, but it is likely that in North America this form has largely been assimilated to Best. German: from a short form of Sebastian.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 2,331,291 Historical Documents with Best on Ancestry
- 670,634 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 386,889 Census and Voter Lists
- 79,376 Military Records
- 39,251 Immigration Records
- 1,155,141 Member Trees
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Number of Best families
 615 - 1,228  206 - 614 |
 1 - 205  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
Number of Best families
|
114 - 225 39 - 113 |
1 - 38 |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
Best census records
You can see how Best families moved over time by selecting different Census years.
Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, occupation and value of personal estate.
from the New York Passengers List
Click on a place to view Best immigration records
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry. You can find out where the majority of the Best families were living before they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival, and destination.
from the Canadian Passenger Lists
Click on a circle in the chart to view Best immigration records
You can find out when most of the Best families immigrated to Canada. You can focus your search to immigration records dating from that era.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival and destination.
from 1881 CA Census Data
Best census records
Census records can offer a lot of little known facts about your Best ancestors, such as occupation.
Occupation can tell you about your ancestors' social status and economic status.
Did the Bests fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.
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