Ham Family History
- Ham Name Meaning
- English (mainly southwestern England): variant spelling of Hamm. French: habitational name from any of the various places in northern France (Ardennes, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Moselle) named with the Germanic word ham ‘meadow in the bend of a river’, ‘water meadow’, ‘flood plain’. Dutch: variant of Hamme. Korean: there is only one Chinese character for the Ham surname. Some sources report that there are sixty different Ham clans, but only the Kangnung Ham clan can be documented. Although some records have been lost and a few generations are unaccounted for, it is known that the founding ancestor of the Ham clan is Ham Kyu, a Koryo general who fought against the Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century. His ancestor, Ham Hyok, was a Tang Chinese general who stayed in Korea after Tang China helped Shilla unify the peninsula during the seventh century. Another of Ham Hyok’s ancestors, Ham Shin, accompanied Kim Chu-won, the founding ancestor of the Kangnung Kim family, to the Kangnung area, and hence the Ham clan became the Kangnung Ham clan. The first prominent ancestor from Kangnung whose genealogy can be verified is Ham Kyu, the Koryo general. Accordingly, he is regarded as the Kangnung Ham clan’s founding ancestor.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 1,023,453 Historical Documents with Ham on Ancestry
- 365,801 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 176,279 Census and Voter Lists
- 43,390 Military Records
- 19,737 Immigration Records
- 418,246 Member Trees
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Number of Ham families
 197 - 391  66 - 196 |
 1 - 65  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
Number of Ham families
|
45 - 87 16 - 44 |
1 - 15 |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
Ham census records
You can see how Ham 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 Ham 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 Ham 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 Ham immigration records
You can find out when most of the Ham 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
Ham census records
Census records can offer a lot of little known facts about your Ham ancestors, such as occupation.
Occupation can tell you about your ancestors' social status and economic status.
Did the Hams 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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