Just some varied info here for all the posters that replied to your original topic about the Ijams/Iames/Ijames/Iiams, etc.surname, and the folks who have questioned about, a) the connection back to Sir Robert I'ans, as well as questioned about b) the ethnicity of origin for this surname.
Here's a couple of ways to "logic-out" some answers.
Firstly when William came to America, the clerk wrote down his last name as "Eyoms". One today would pronounce that Eye-ums--but in those days, we still had British accents, which would have
said that spelling (of Eyoms) as Eeee-yums.
Now Eeee-yums (w/ long E sound) is not a very big stretch at all to that of I'ans (we today say Eye-ans,like first name Ian(eye-an), but again, back then in 1600s we said I'ans as the British did (and still do today)say it--which is Eeee-yans(as theyalso say the 1st name of Ian---as Eeee-yan (w/long e)).
So using logic Obviously William Eyoms, the progenitor of our Ijams/Iiams/Ijames/Iams/Iiames, etc etc Surname in America----was OF the I'ans clan (and certainly NOT of the
INNES family--as the clerk would have written down Inis, Ennis,or Innes itself (as that surname was very well known
in America in that era).
Also people have long confused Sir Robert INNES,the "Quar- termaster General" for QE1 with that of Sir Robert I'ans, the "Master of the Ordnance" for Queen Liz,the first, but it is of the latter that I'ans folk come down from.
This also is supported by spelling which reflects ethnicity as well as area I'ans clan was from in Britain.
For example, Innes is Scots/Saxon. I'ans is Welsh/Norman. This goes along with what every Ijams/Ijames/Iiames/Iams/etc person has ever said of their ethnic ancestry.... that they were/ are WELSH.
Yes DANISH has a "y-sounding" letter "j",as does Swedish- but this is Not WHY the Ijams or Ijames, etc has the "j".
In the English spoken of the era (1600s or before) the use
of an "i" or "j" were Interchangeable, as their sounds were not yet fixed & differentiated as they are today.
So you started out w/ say,I'ans,which sounded(then), as (long e) Eee-yuns, then the clerk spelled William's name as Eyoms (said w/long e,then), then later Will and his issue used "i" in the spelling---as folks just spelled things as THEY thought they should be written (as no "fixed" way to do, til standardized schooling began early 1900s!).
So they wrote Ijams, meaning Iiams (ie-sounded Eee-yans) --and in fact people today who have the Ijames spelling do Not SAY "eye-james" they pronounce it- "eye-ams"!!)
So this is how the J got in the mix--NOT from any Scandi-navian heritage,as one might think.
Further supporting the WELSH ethnicity issue--is the fact
that all the early Ijams/Ijames/Iiams/Iiames/Iams,etc per- sons all said they were Welsh--and established in America work they'd done (that was traditional to them) back in Wales(and/or Cornwall--of the Cornish people),which was
slate mining. (Sir I'ans was in Cornwall, and the Welsh and Cornish peoples are related and have mutually understood languages).
Also when you look at pix of all those early Ijams/Iiams, etc etc they all have the dark Welsh looks of that race, not the features/coloring of the Teutonic Saxons.
I hope this information helps shed some light on the mis- conceptions a lot of people have been under, esp. as wrong info is often just copied online and repeated forever, w/ often no basis in fact, what-so-ever.
Best wishes to all in getting back to our original patriarch!
Take care,
Vienna