Researching William Sotheby
Explore the detail of William Sotheby using the links below. We hope you find this information useful!
Good news! There is already a One Name Study on the Sotheby surname.

The name William means "resolute guardian" and is of German origin.
Records of William Sotheby on Ancestry
Ancestry is a major source of information if you are filling out the detail of William Sotheby in your family tree. With over 30 billion records and 100 million family trees to search, Ancestry is one of the key websites to visit to help you trace your family tree back in time. Free trials are normally available and are a good way to fill out a lot of your tree quickly.
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DNA
Sometimes you can run into a brick wall in your tree and you just don't have enough evidence to make that next step back in time. A DNA test can sometimes help to make a link to a particular family name if you find you share common DNA with people who have the same or similar surnames as each other. If you are lucky then you may get a match within a few generations and discover some Sotheby ancestors. Additionally, the modern DNA test can give you a breakdown of your ethnic mix - you may be surprised at the results!
Have you reached a brick wall in your Sotheby Tree?
Birth, Death and Marriage Records for William Sotheby and the Sotheby Family History
Birth, Death and Marriage records are often the best method of making the links to the Sotheby Genealogy that will form part of your family tree. Although records vary from country to country, they are normally the most formal record of a person's relations. From the sources below you will be able to find a birth record and, from that, a birth certificate can be ordered which lists the names of the mother and father, taking you back another generation in your tree. A marriage certificate may also list the names of the respective fathers of the bride and groom which may then help you to find them earlier in life on a census record enabling you to fill out more detail in the Sotheby family tree.
Explore Parish Records for William Sotheby at Find My Past.
Look at for the UK registered births, marriages and deaths of William Sotheby using the FreeBMD database.
Check out Genealogy Bank for William Sotheby records.
Check out MyHeritage for William Sotheby information.
Study the LDS Database for records about William Sotheby.
Research the Sotheby surname using fold3 Military Archives and view images of original Sotheby Military records.
Sotheby Family Tree Databases
Another way to build your tree quickly is to use the research other people have already done. This can help to confirm or refute your own deductions - however, be wary of taking this data at face value as other researchers may not have been as meticulous as you. Always try to back up deductions with some definitive sources rather than relying too heavily on others.
Check out the WikiTree database for user contributed records for William Sotheby.
Study MyTrees for information on the Sotheby family and people looking to contact living Sotheby relations.
Study One Great Family for Sotheby records submitted by people who are already researching the Sotheby Family Tree.
Find William Sotheby from Ireland on findmypast.ie
Sotheby Forums
There are a number of forums which are dedicated to rearching particular surnames. These can be good places to share your findings and also to tap into the knowledge that others may already have. These can sometimes be a good way of finding living relations as these tend not to show up on the other sources of information for privacy reasons.
Research the Sotheby surname using Genealogy.com forums .
Miscellaneous Sotheby Databases
Look at the Ellis Island Database for information on William Sotheby. This database contains over 25 million immigration records detailing passengers arriving in the United States of America.
Some Famous People called William Sotheby
William Sotheby
William Sotheby FRS (9 November 1757 – 30 December 1833) was an English poet and translator. He was born into a wealthy London family, the son of Col. William and Elizabeth (née Sloan) Sotheby, and was educated at Harrow School and the Military Academy, Angers, France before joining the army at 17, where he served for six years until his marriage in 1780, when he devoted himself to literature.
Sotheby then became a prominent figure in London literary society. His wealth enabled him to play the part of patron to many struggling authors, and his friends included Walter Scott, Byron, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Southey, Arthur Hallam, and Thomas Moore.
He published a few dramas and books of poems that had limited success; his reputation rests upon his translations of the Oberon of Christoph Martin Wieland, the Georgics of Virgil, and the Iliad and Odyssey by Homer. The last two were begun when he was over 70, but he lived to complete them. His Georgics in particular advanced his reputation and was praised in the Edinburgh Review as, if not "the most perfect translation of a classic poet now extant in our language, it is assuredly capable of being advanced to that high distinction."
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in November 1794.
Sotheby died in London in 1833 and was buried in Hackney churchyard. Joanna Baillie, a close friend of Sotheby's for "nearly thirty years" mourned his passing: "A more generous, high-minded, amiable man never lived, and this, taken together with his great talents & acquirements, makes a Character which cannot be replaced."
Source: William Sotheby, Wikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaOther names that sound a bit like Sotheby
Family names can get corrupted over time, particularly where literacy was not as good. The following list contains some names that have similar sounds so you may want to also look at one or two of the more likely possibilites.
Saathoff Satava Sidoff Southby St_eve Staab Staff Staffa Staib Stape Stapf Stapp Staub Staube Stava Stave Steeby Steepy Steff Steffe Steffey Steffy Stefi Steib Steif Steiff Steip Step Stepe Stepp Steppe Steube Stife Stiff Stiffey Stip Stipe Stipp Stive Stivey Stobaugh Stobbe Stobbie Stobie Stobo Stoff Stoop Stopa Stopp Stoppe Stoup Stove Stubbe Stubi Stuby Stuff Stupp Stuve Suddaby Sudhoff Suttaby Sztaba





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