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#160550 06/19/06 05:39 AM
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Sujatha Offline OP
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Chapman brings to mind the use of surnames in India. In almost all parts of India surnames that come after one's given name has become the family name. For instance Upadhyay, Chandal, etc. In India, unlike in the Western civilisation, families that have been practising a certain profession have given them respect or kept them on the fringes of the society. Upadhyay means 'a teacher' while chandal cremates the dead. Upadhyay is a respected profession while chandal was considered an outcast.

#160551 06/19/06 01:21 PM
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Just a comment about your example of Smith as a surname, there were other smiths besides blacksmiths, any metal worker was a smith, coppersmith, tinsmith, silversmith, goldsmith, etc. By the way, contrary to popular opinion, a blacksmith did not just shoe horses, he was the source for all metal products; hinges, hooks, pots, pans, gates, locks, a smith made just about any of the things made of metal that today we would buy in a hardware store.

#160552 06/20/06 01:17 PM
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This subject has always fascinated me. Do you know of any trusted web resources with lots of surnames?

#160553 06/21/06 01:25 PM
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Here's the link to the Google listing for surnames; I can't vouch for any reliability, but will offer two cautions: don't trust Wikipedia unless the article lists a source and you check out that source; and, don't use any site that you have to pay for.
surnames

#160554 06/26/06 07:15 AM
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A friend of mine has a surname that is in no book of names that I know , not even ones that describe "O" , her name is THOYTZ, (West Country, UK)
Perhaps casting the net deep rather than broad might catch a similar fish........

#160555 06/26/06 10:25 AM
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Hi hari, welcome to the board. If you change the Wezt Country burr of a Z to the more normal English S you'll be on track to find a clutch of Thoyts throughout history, such as mentioned on this search.

#160556 06/26/06 12:02 PM
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and many more Hoyts, I'm sure.

welcome, hari, and great to see you again, mav!


formerly known as etaoin...
#160557 06/27/06 09:38 AM
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Thanks eta

At the time of posting I hadn’t read the circular from Anu – what a great little tool that link to a surname distribution website is! Does that go some way to answering auctoron's question? I see that neither Thoyts nor Hoyts shows up in enough numbers to register there yet.

Meanwhile a bit of whimsy triggered by the same compendium from Anu…

> From: Helen Slade (helensladeATtelus.net)
Subject: Professions and surnames
As a child with the surname Cox, I fended off the constant teasing with a romantic notion that my name derived from Coxswain…


There was a young lady named Cox
Who was teased as a pretty young fox;
On her marriage bed laid
When she married a Slade
She was pleased by far more than his locks!

Last edited by maverick; 06/27/06 09:39 AM.
#160558 06/27/06 01:08 PM
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I ran the six surnames I know in my family and only one was a recognised name by the site I used. Hummph!
I tried the Ancestor.co.uk site, but they want euros. Apparently, there are/were some ancestors somewhere in the UK, since the 1851 census lists 4 people with my surname. The England/Wales birth register lists 3 births between 1984 and 2004. The most interesting thing I can almost see without paying for it is between 1871 and 1891, the census figures for that surname went from 23 to 15. During that time span, my great grandfather and his eight brothers emigrated from the UK to Kentucky.

#160559 06/27/06 01:22 PM
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emigrated from the UK to Kentucky A-HEM: UK is in Kentucky! Go Big Blue! (I'll stand in for Alex, as he is busy with his brand-new, first-born, baby son.) Do you know what part of KY they were in, Connie?

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