RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Buckinghamshire => Topic started by: jillruss on Thursday 14 December 17 17:57 GMT (UK)
-
What kind of a surname is PLASTHEAD?
I actually thought I'd made some kind of a breakthrough with a marriage on my main Russell line. Its puzzling: my CD of Hughenden PRs has the 5 June 1623 marriage between George Russell and Agnes - (i.e. no surname). I can't lay my hands on it at the moment, but I think I'm also right in saying that a name search I had done by Buck FHS also gave Agnes' surname as blank. I haven't seen the original register.
So, imagine my surprise when I checked on the recently introduced Bucks Marriage Index on FindMyPast to find that Agnes had acquired a surname - PLASTHEAD!! Its not a real surname, is it? :-\ The nearest I could think of is Plaistow or similar but, you guessed it, no sign of any Plaistows in early Hughenden. This branch must be cursed - I've also had a Katherine HOLMYARD which doesn't seem to exist and a Frances SPIGDEN ditto.
Anyone got any brilliant ideas?
-
Perhaps the answer is to look at the original parish registers for yourself, rather than rely on transcriptions by others :-\ :- :-*
-
Plasted :-\ There are a few in the 1700's in Buckinghamshire - also 1600's
-
Looking at FreeReg there is a marriage 1568/69 for a Johannes Plankett which I suppose might not sound that different to Plasthead...
Pretty sure everyone would like to look at original parish registers but Aylesbury isn't on the doorstep of the majority of people!
-
Pretty sure everyone would like to look at original parish registers but Aylesbury isn't on the doorstep of the majority of people!
Not too bad a location for a few days away though - Plenty of National Trust places in the vicinity or there is always Oxford ;D
(Sorry JillRuss not solving the problem)
-
I like the sound of "Plasted" for the surname, the only one I know with the same amount of lettering is "Broadhead".
Have you looked to see if the relevant Parish Records are on the international book library?
https://archive.org/details/texts?and[]=languageSorter%3A%22English%22
I entered "Buckinghamshire" in the search box on the LH side and got some Buckinghamshire Parish volumes in the results.
-
I like Plasted, but its a new one on me - it isn't in my Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames - I'll sue!!
I'm hundreds of miles away from Bucks so can't get to see the original register but I might ask Bucks Archives to let me have a copy - may as well look to see if there are any others I can get, seeing as how I shall no doubt have to pay for the privilege.
Before the appearance of PLASTHEAD, I'd assumed that the parish clerk must have omitted Agnes' surname completely but now it would seem that it is difficult to read and someone, somewhere has given it their best shot. Just shows you, never assume!
-
There are Plesteds in Buckinghamshire. I think in Chesham and definitely around Aylesbury. When I was a child, Mr Plested was the stop me and buy one icecream man, on a motorbike and sidecar.
-
Oh come on Jill.....it surely must be Plaistowe(with the 'e' ). ;D ;D
Holman, Hollyman, Holliman, Hollond, Holland = Holmyard.
Sydenham = Spigden.
Baptisms for an Agnes's in Hughenden.
1596 - Agnes Moorton.
1599 - Agnes Grey.
1614 - Agnes Fastnige. ( a bit young though).
Steve. :)
-
Reaney and Wilson have "Plaisted, Playsted, Plaster, Plested, from residence near a place for play. Chapel Plaster in Box (Wilts) was the home of John atte Pleistede in 1333." cb
-
Check here for distribution of surnames:
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/
For starters Plaisted and Holmyard are included, though this is just a snapshot of a point in time and is likely to be different in different eras. I did not check other surnames/variations suggested as alternatives. :)
-
Reaney and Wilson have "Plaisted, Playsted, Plaster, Plested, from residence near a place for play. Chapel Plaster in Box (Wilts) was the home of John atte Pleistede in 1333." cb
I like this explanation of a surname that is derived from a place. Rather unfortunate that many counties had such places. I've got a similar descriptive surname of "Crum" which describes a piece of land at the crooked bend of a river - but which river?
-
I think I'm sold on Plasted or Plaistow for Agnes - not that it helps to find her baptism. Certainly not in Hughenden, even allowing for Agnes aka Ann.
There are all sorts of possibilities for Holmyard, including the ones you listed, Bucksboy. I've even wondered about Harman, Hammond etc but, again, it hasn't helped me locate Katherine.
Sorry, but I can't see how you get Spigden from Sydenham!! I thought possibly Pigden or Piggot?, with the final 's' of Frances having been wrongly carried over to the surname?
I've checked and the one name of the above 3 which I have got the original PR entry for is Katherine Holmyard - and that's definitely what it says. I'm going to see if I can order the marriage entries for Plasthead (still can't get over the fact that a supposedly literate clerk could have actually writen that! Perhaps it proves the surname was 'foreign' to him and I should be looking further afield than Hughenden) and Spigden.
I'd almost prefer Smith or Jones!!!
-
I think I'm sold on Plasted or Plaistow for Agnes - not that it helps to find her baptism. Certainly not in Hughenden, even allowing for Agnes aka Ann.
There are all sorts of possibilities for Holmyard, including the ones you listed, Bucksboy. I've even wondered about Harman, Hammond etc but, again, it hasn't helped me locate Katherine.
Sorry, but I can't see how you get Spigden from Sydenham!! I thought possibly Pigden or Piggot?, with the final 's' of Frances having been wrongly carried over to the surname?
I've checked and the one name of the above 3 which I have got the original PR entry for is Katherine Holmyard - and that's definitely what it says. I'm going to see if I can order the marriage entries for Plasthead (still can't get over the fact that a supposedly literate clerk could have actually writen that! Perhaps it proves the surname was 'foreign' to him and I should be looking further afield than Hughenden) and Spigden.
I'd almost prefer Smith or Jones!!!
As for SPIGDEN to Sydenham.......nor can I. Not a brilliant idea, but it does begin with S. ;D
I went through the names that start with an S, in Hughenden PR's.......nothing that comes close really.
I wonder if BucksFHS could to a baptism search for Frances SPIGDEN, and give as many variations you can think of. You may get a result for surnames you'd never thought of.
The only problem with that, is the certainty that the surname begins with an S. I have seen old manuscripts, where an F looks like an S, and vice versa. ???
-
Sorry - should have made it clear that its just the Plasthead (I'm warming to it!) marriage that took place in Hughenden - the Frances Spigden marriage was in Little Marlow 1679 and the Katherine Holmyard also in L Marlow in 1680.
-
So, imagine my surprise when I checked on the recently introduced Bucks Marriage Index on FindMyPast to find that Agnes had acquired a surname - PLASTHEAD!! Its not a real surname, is it? :-
That's what I thought when I saw the surname of my like 3x great grandmother MEATYARD, but it exists, I have have a bearer of that surname several times, and have exchanged many emails with her.
I have discovered that for whatever reason (too many girls etc.) some surnames have become naturally extinct, however many became extinct or virtually so in the 19th century for reasons of "Victorian modesty" eg Pimp. Still exists, but I wonder if it would be classed as an occupational surname? ::)
-
We tend to forget the effect of local dialects on spellings, imagine an 'educated' priest appointed to a village church many miles from his home parish confronted by surnames he'd never heard of before and illiterate people who had no idea how their surname was spelt - best guess probably based on what he did know. Some parish records were also completed by the parish clerk if the priest wasn't always there or couldn't write for some reason, the parish clerk might not be that well educated himself - I came across that scenario in my home parish where the rector's handwriting deteriorated over a number of years to become all but illegible then subsequent entries were qualified by the comment completed by parish clerk until the rector died and a new incumbent was appointed.
I was brought up in a small village near Reading in the 1940s and when we visited relatives at Stow in the Wold and Battle in Sussex I had quite a job understanding the older people. When a lad from Lancashire joined my junior school he all but spoke a different language to us and didn't understand us too well either. This all changed as the 'standard' BBC language/spoken word took over.
-
Many years ago in the course of my work I had to interview a train driver at York. It became a very long interview as his Gateshead accent was as unintelligible to me as my mixture of Lincolnshire Yorkshire was to him.Everything had to be written down both questions and replies. Took over an hour to do 10 minutes work!!