Awesome! I am a mix of Irish, British, and German. We can track it back to know that based on immigration papers and census in the US. Beyond that, it I haven't found much.
Better you than me, we paid an "expert" to do ours, my Grandad was an adopted child, with no papers, bought over from France when he was literally less than a year old. Nobody knows his real parents, not even him. He's now mid-late 70s. Oddly, his surname is the family surname, and was the only identifier on his when his adopted parents got him, he wasn't made aware he was an adopted child until high school by his adopted parents.
Better you than me, we paid an "expert" to do ours, my Grandad was an adopted child, with no papers, bought over from France when he was literally less than a year old. Nobody knows his real parents, not even him. He's now mid-late 70s. Oddly, his surname is the family surname, and was the only identifier on his when his adopted parents got him, he wasn't made aware he was an adopted child until high school by his adopted parents.
We can find other "Mander's" in and around the UK, and there's a somewhat well known company called Mander Brothers and were renowned for their paints and such (Irony when I do a lot of paint work (CC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mander_Brothers). From Wolverhampton. There's been a few things said "Expert" "Predicted" that basically, the family of the Mander brothers (Generations later) had an affair and hey presto, that's where my Granddad came from. But nothings proven, it's a bit shoddy. Fortunately in many moons to come, we'll have databases full of all of this stuff, as really hoarding data on people as much as we do now, is only very recently done, hence it's a PITA to do it for those of us with unusual backgrounds or surnames.
Hopefully you find some relations, there's some surname searches online which helps locate said surname nearby... You can, if you want to wait an age, use FOI act to get surname information data from the UK Govt, but, you can't get specifics to "dox" someone. Good luck hunting!
yeah you're doomed going back on those surnames. :lol:! At least Hoops and Mander are somewhat 'rare'
Pahahahaha, no, no. But when Pokémon was a thing I always got asked (Because my mum was pregnant and told nobody the gender) if it would be called Charlie/Charlotte (CharMander) :lol:Maybe you GP's name was shortened... Perhaps his surname was originally ScaMander..LOL Does this look like him in his youth?
Ha ha! :cheers:
You could try the DNA testing. I am black (English Born) so tracing my genealogy by last name is impossible (Families name was a slave name and subsequently changed). I did find out I partly Irish though. The site will also link your to relatives. YMMV