My last name Sestito is pretty uncommon. It supposedly means "one who serves" or "one who puts things in order". According to the interwebs, most of us come from either southern Italy (mainly Calabria) or Africa. That last part is interesting.
My grandfather, who passed away back in 1975, was conscripted into the Italian army in the 1930's and served during the invasion and occupation of Ethiopia. The stories my dad and uncle told always mentioned that after the invasion, he served there during the occupation and installation of an "emperor", and he was asked to be the "court cobbler" and make shoes for the emperor and court. He turned this down, but had to serve his tour anyway. They always wondered if they had some half-brothers and sisters over there, because he was gone for years, and... well... you know. It's quite possible I have some cousins over there!
My mother's maiden name was Gauley. It came to Canada from Ireland after the war of 1812, but if you look for it in Ireland it's almost nonexistant. All of her ancestors were Irish Protestants from Ireland. My father's people are Scottish and some Irish, with a bit of French for good measure. My Martin surname came to Canada in 1825 attached to an Irishman. Despite my ancestry being at least 2/3 Irish, my DNA is 89% Scottish, as Irish Protestants are largely the descendants of transplanted Scots from the time of James I.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Fortunately, I didn't loose my wallet last time I was up that far, so I'm good.
Wasn't said a a complement to us block headed scandihuvians, either, but most of us are thick headed enough to embrace it, all the same 
Mine's pretty easy. We are of english and irish descent. Miller..... pretty easy. That branch of the family immigrated somewhere in the early 1800's. The Fitzwaters were german, but were late 1800's. The Hansell side was english, not very good people and have been here since the mid 1700's.
The wife's family name got changed when they came through Ellis Island.
On my father's side its a bit confused. He always said it was Scotch/Irish, or sometimes he said it was Welsh. So, somewhere in the British Isles. I'm thinking Welsh, because have you ever heard Welsh? Supposedly "Son of Ea". Welsh were coal miners, and when the seams ran out in Wales a lot of them came to America with coal mining experience. Maybe why my father was born in Fairmont WV in 1903.
On my mother's side the the history is clearer because of church records in Poland. Her father was on of 5 brothers that immigrated to America in 1890s. Interestingly, at Ellis Island all their last names got spelled slightly different as they arrived. They were proud of their heritage and never "Americanized" their names.
My grandfather said early on in the States he would tell potential employers he was German because Germans were thought to be engineers, and Poles laborers. If you were German you got a better job on the NY Central. He wasn't always able to convince them.
A little searching that I may not have ordinarily done, had it not been for this thread, turned up this
Some ancient book that has been shown to have a lot of errors indicated the Kea/Key family came into Philadelphia very early "and from there they went north and south". We are the southern branch. We were supposed to be Scots- Irish, but we were here long before they even existed. We migrated to tidewater Virginia, to Coastal NC, to Darlington County, SC(where our information really picks up, on the South Georgia during a land lottery after the native Americans were run off. Our DNA is of danish origin, so we would have been raiders to northern England I guess.
I'm a candle maker at one time and at others I am a seller of shipboard goods.
Fairbank
My family and the name originated in England, as Fairbanks with an s on the end. We've been on this side of the Pond since the early 1600s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Fairbanks
My family has lots of history in the Boston area, upstate New York, Chicago, Arizona, and elsewhere. We didn't move West until fairly recently.
I've heard several different stories about the split between the Fairbank and Fairbanks spelling. The truth is probably out there somewhere.
I think Hall is English not sure much after that.
Family is from Germany. I was told that after WWI my grandfather and grandmother realized that they needed to get out and emigrated to the US. At Ellis island they were given the name Smith. The story goes that the officer told grandpa that due to the war having the name of Schmidt was not the best thing so he changed it to Smith. When I was young my dad and I were often just called Smitty.
Ellis Island told my great grandparents they weren't allowed to have 2 I's next to each other in our last name so they changed them to e's.
Before that one of my paternal grandfather's cousins traced it back too late 1700s Sicily before he ran out of records.
Ellis Island changed it to what was common at the time. Not a whole lot of available records from the old country for what it may have been...
Named after a small river in the Sudentenland.
Great-great grampa made it out before things got...bad.
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