Shan Family History
- Shan Name Meaning
- Chinese : from the place name Shan. Cheng Wang, the second king (1115–1079 bc) of the Zhou dynasty, granted to a son the area of Shan, and the son’s descendants adopted the place name as their surname. Chinese : from a word meaning ‘mountain’. The legendary emperor Shen Nong (2734–2697 bc) was supposedly born on Lie Mountain, the name of which he gave to one of his sons. One of the descendants of that son adopted the word for ‘mountain’, shan, as his surname. Another source of the name was an official post that existed during the Zhou dynasty (1122–221 bc) called the Mountain Master, which carried the responsibilities of overseeing mountains and forests. Again, the word for ‘mountain’, shan, was adopted as a surname. Indian (Gujarat): Hindu (Vania) name of unknown meaning. Reduced form of northern Irish and Scottish McShane. Variant of English Shann.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 50,923 Historical Documents with Shan on Ancestry
- 17,935 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 17,837 Census and Voter Lists
- 6,104 Military Records
- 6,937 Immigration Records
- 2,110 Member Trees
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Number of Shan families
 91 - 179  31 - 90 |
 1 - 30  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
Number of Shan families
|
9 - 15 4 - 8 |
1 - 3 |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
Shan census records
You can see how Shan 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 Shan 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 Shan 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 Shan immigration records
You can find out when most of the Shan 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
Shan census records
Census records can offer a lot of little known facts about your Shan ancestors, such as occupation.
Occupation can tell you about your ancestors' social status and economic status.
Did the Shans 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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