Romany message boards

[oldcrone]

On my maternal grandmother's side of the family, some of our family names are Pannell, Newland and Proudley.  I know that these are Romany surnames, often based in Sussex, Surrey and Kent. 

My grandmother's mother was called Jane Pannell; Jane's father, James Pannell, was a hawker in Sussex (Horsham area) and we don't think he ever married Fanny Newland, Jane's mother.  There were quite a few Pannell children, as well as Jane, and on their birth certificates, some of them were given Newland surnames, and also Proudley.  Apparently, it was quite common for couples not to marry and for their children to have the mother's surname.

All this was largely suppressed in our family (my grandmother said we had 'spanish connections'!).

Does anyone have any experience of any Romany message boards?  Googling doesn't seem to be a lot of help (ie BBC message boards for 'young Romanys') .

Many thanks

Clara

[Dimps]

Hi Clara,

There is the Romany and Traveller Family History Society:

http://www.rtfhs.org.uk/

They operate an e-mail list where members can post enquiries.

There is also the UK-Romani Mailing List on Rootsweb:

http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/UK/UK-ROMANI.html

Dimps

Dimps

[oldcrone]

Many thanks for your help, Dimps, will try them both. 

best wishes

Clara

[Lorraine L]

Hi Clara,
I have some friends local to me here in West Sussex with the surname Pannell. Do you want me to run those names by them for you ?
Regards
Lorraine

[oldcrone]

Cheers, Lorraine, that would be great!

James and Fanny Pannell's children were Betsy, Eliza, Emily, James, Jane (my g-grandmother), Rosa, Henry, Albert and Fred, born between 1865 and 1888 mainly around the Horsham area.

many thanks

Clara

[Roy G]

Re Pannell

I don't really know how unusual the name Pannell is, but many years ago I conducted some research on behalf of a third party who asked me to document the family of George (b1790) & Jemima Pannell of Brighton. 

The most fascinating thing was that after his son's death in 1904 (also George b1832), George's pocket watch turned up on one of the unidentified corpses from the Titanic.

Roy G

[oldcrone]

Hi Lorraine, wondered if you'd managed to chase up any family connection with your Pannell friends? 

And thanks again, Dimps, I've tried the websites you've mentioned: the Romany and Traveller website looks great - I just need to pay a bit of money to join, and then you can access the message board.  Couldn't believe that on the front page of this site, it says something like: 'these are the most common Romani names and occupations'....; and amongst them I find my own family names and occupations: Pannell, Newland and Proudley, hawkers and basket makers!

The Rootsweb Romani site looks a bit fraught with infighting over political correctness!!  Felt a bit intimidated to post anything on that one!!

Clara

[shahnee]

hello all, as a Romany Gypsy myeslf i know how hard it can be to find your roots.
Many changed their names when settling down and often births, deaths and marriages where not registered for the Gypsy so many of our ancestors are extremely hard to find!
Although i've joined a number of websites looking for imformation its still extremely hard.
However i do find that word of mouth often helps as the Romany grapevine is still very alive so often joining a Romany websites can be useful. Sadly many of us have fiery tempers n short fuses so there is sometimes heated debate and as we are private people others may mistake us for stanoffish - but actually we are very friendly folki!
I can however recommend one site which i know will offer a warm welcome and has a very indepth geneology section - www.journeyfolki. org.uk - its a very proffessional site and also very amiable folki run it - dey promote and perpetuate the Romany and Travellars way of life through education, inspiration, information and conversation. Although it is a relatively new site the site is run by well established persons and the geneology experts on the site are on hand to guide and advise you on how to find your Gypsy ancestors -  they have helped me in these matters and i know are exztremely proffessional at their work.
If anyone has any information for myself realating to a Babentta Cannes, born around 1940s, please let me know. thank you. I am aware he travelled the North as showfolki  in the 60s and i may have a brother or uncle called Nazir Cannes - any help will be gratefully accepted.
my best wishes,
kushti bok!
SHAHNEE CANNES

[oldcrone]

Thanks, Shahnee, for the info!  I certainly will chase up the site you mentioned - cheers for that. 

'Fiery tempers and short fuses' sounds a bit familiar.....

Clara