[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by garinda

You never know. Sometimes these old tales have a grain of truth. Might be through marriage, the connection, and not your Hargreaves line.

I can go back to ancient Babylon, through apparently being a direct descendent of John o' Gaunt, yet I'm still trying to find any link to Hogarth, who my late granny insisted she was descended from.

It is fascinating, though you are left with the feeling we are very lucky to be here. Being a result of such a massive gene pool.

Gi oer Garry, before the Norman invasion very few people in this country had a surname, those that had were like one you mention John O Gaunt. It was only a decree by a King that brought about the use of surnames, that was so his tax collectors knew who they were dealing with, many took their surname from the place they were living in, others used the name of their trade or occupation, thats why we have so many Smiths.
Then along came parish registers, and cloth eared clerics who did'nt understand local dialects, and wrote what they heard in the parish registers.
After that the variations became endless. Just take the example of Whosnam, its now Wolstenholme, & John the Zitherator became John Harper. Any body outside of royalty & the nobility, who claims they can traced their ancestry back to the 1400, has been taking lessons from Baron Munchausen.
Retlaw.