Surname "Stakes"

[klnstakes]

Hello,

First, my name is Kayellen and I live in the US (Texas actually). A fellow researcher of the same surname shared with me a history of the name which was purchased by one of those "Find your surname" sites.

Since I have very little knowledge of the UK and prefer my information to be factual I was wondering if anyone could assist me.

I am researching the surname "Stakes".
The information shared states in part "When the ancestors of the Stakes family emigrated to England following the Norman Conquest in 1066, they brought their family name with them. They lived in Pembrokeshire. ...In-depth research by skilled analysts into ancient manuscripts such as the Domesday Book (compiled in 1086 by William the Conqueror), the Ragman Rolls, the Wace poem, the Honour Roll of the Battel Abbey, the Cruia Regis, Pipe Rolls, the Falaise Roll, tax records, baptismals, family genealogies, local parish and church recores, shows that the Stakes name was first found in Pembrokeshire where they held a family seat from early times."

Could any of this be true? I know that our ancestors came from "England" but have yet to locate any record of immigration for my ancestor.

I do know that there are variant spellings of the name, so I am thinking along the lines that it has probably changed over the past couple of centuries.

What is meant by "held a family seat" , and has anyone here found the surname in their own genealogy?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I will do my best to help anyone in return.

Kayellen ( pronounced K-l-n)

[jorose]

Those "surname meaning" sites are really not to be trusted, and that's putting it mildly. "An outright scam" would be closer. I'm sorry to say that your fellow researcher has wasted his/her money.
For a start, Pembrokeshire is not in "England".

I am pretty sure there is a template that says something like:

"When the ancestors of the {SURNAME} family emigrated to {LOCATION} following {HISTORICAL EVENT}, they brought their family name with them. They lived in {PLACE}. ...In-depth research by skilled analysts into ancient manuscripts such as {LIST OF OLD RECORDS}, shows that the {SURNAME} name was first found in {PLACE} where they held a family seat from early times."

This may be supplemented with random examples of the surname taken from publicly available databases, under the false assumption that all these people are automatically related.

the bit about the "Honour Roll of the Battel (sic) Abbey" can be easily shown to be false:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Abbey_Roll
http://www.nls.uk/auchinleck/mss/barons.html

The Ragman Rolls are Scottish, so who knows what a family from Pembrokeshire would be doing on them. Again, nothing like "Stakes" there, anyway.
http://www.rampantscotland.com/ragman/blragman_index.htm

The Falaise Roll:
http://www.robertsewell.ca/falaise.html

There is rarely such a thing as a single origin for a surname, unless your surname is very very very unusual. Mine is quite unusual to the extent that many people don't think it's even English when they heard it, and there's still at least three different unrelated groups of people bearing it or it's derivations, because it's a placename-surname and there are at least three places with similar names across the country.

Surnames often come from placenames ("William of Kent" becomes "William Kent", or ), occupations ("Smith"), descriptions ("Brown"), and sometimes patronymics ("Johnson"), so many unrelated people might have adopted the same surname. Some names can be linked to areas of the country (e.g. "Tre, Pol, Pen" names to Cornwall).


Depending on the date your ancestor would have immigrated, consider whether there might have been a military or marine connection (soldiers and sailors are often absent from normal passenger lists but they might appear on other records). Look at who else settled close to him/her, because people often ended up emigrating together with people from the same area, or went to places where they already knew somebody. Think about what was happening, historically, both in England and in the area of the US they moved to, that might have encouraged the move (wars, famines, gold-rushes).  Even if there's not a smoking gun in the form of a passenger list, there may be other records you can find.

You can add your surname interests and search for other people researching the same surnames here: http://surname.rootschat.com/

[klnstakes]

Thank you Jorose,

Thank you for taking the time to answer. I kind of thought that was the case with those surname sites. So I can stick with my original thought that the meaning of Stakes is most likely derived from someone who made/makes stakes or someone who live near the stakes.

Our Stakes were shoemakers up until the early 1900's when they turned to farming. It is just curious that they would be names stakes rather than shoemaker.

I will add my surname interests here and keep digging.

Thank you again for your help.

[Ruskie]

Welcome kln. 

You may find this interesting:
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/
(only to be used as a guide)

The surname Stakes appears to be more concentrated in Yorkshire. No mention of Pembrokeshire.  To get an ide I searched for the surname in the 1841 census and there are just over 200 people with that surname in England. There is only 1 person with that surname in Wales, and she lived in Radnorshire not Pembrokeshire.

I wouldn't worry about your family seat as you probably didn't have one - not in Pembrokeshire at least.  As I understand it a "family seat" is a lot of land and probably a big house or houses owned by someone with a lot of wealth and influence - all handed down through generations of the same family and possibly granted to you by the King. 
From Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_seat

Many of the "find your surname" sites are aimed at the American market because they know that you folks love all the history, pomp and ceremony associated with the UK, and every American would love to have royalty, knights and very wealthy ancestors in their family trees. So they take advantage of that.

If you can tell us some names and dates of birth of your Stakes family, someone may be able to help locate them and their origins. When do you think they went to the US?

It's good that you are doing your own research and looking for the facts. Best of luck with it.   

PS. The origins of the surname Stakes may not be as literal as you think. The name may be derived from something which has nothing to do with the word 'stakes' as we know it today, or from another country or language perhaps ... 

[jorose]

Take it with a pinch of salt, but "A Dictionary of English surnames" lists "Stakes" as being from "dweller by the stake", where a stake may well have meant a boundary post of some description, and Staker as being from the same meaning or possibly an occupational surname for someone whose job was driving in stakes.

There are also some names like Peel (from pel, meaning stake) which are thought to describe a tall, thin, man.
And "Copstake" which comes from "cut-stake" meaning a woodcutter.

The truth is it's quite possible you'll never trace the exact origin. Surnames were for the most part adopted well before the (ordinary) man appears in written records. Whether William or George or John who was your great-however-many-times-grandfather first took the name Stakes was because his house was next to a boundary marker or because he made stakes or because he was a tall and lanky fellow... who knows?

[klnstakes]

Thank you Ruskie for also taking the time to reply.  

Yes, I do love the history associated with researching my family but I have no illusions of grandeur. I am afraid that if I did "Find" that my ancestors were of royal or wealthy descent I would fall over dead and leave a mess of papers behind for my children to curse me for!

As I said earlier, my family were shoemakers untill the early 1900's and later were farmers.  I am willing to bet that the closest they ever came to wealth were the waiting feet of the wealthy.    I never thought to look up "family seat" on Wiki. I will chalk that up as a senior moment of forgetfulness.

As for our name.. while it is something I would love to learn the origin/meaning of I am more concerned with following my ancestral line as far back as I can document.

There are couple of Stakes that I am wrestling with at the moment.  Let me pull out the information to double check my facts and then I can post them with confidence and accuracy as to dates and such.

Thank you again for your reply and the kind offer of assistance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jarose...     Well that sure is pretty close to my thought process as far as the name goes and to be honest it fits my father and his ancestors since they were 6 foot and slim to medium builds.

[klnstakes]

The "Stakes" ancestor was Henry H. Stakes; he had to pay a "head tax" in 1684,  so the thought is that since all white males age 16 and up had to pay this tax he was at least 16, making his probable birth year 1668. Though he could have been older.

We know that after he arrived in 1684 he lived in Accomack County, Virginia and died there in 1727, was married to Margaret Mitter on July 19, 1688 and fathered 9 children.

Though I have not validated the following information that a cousin sent me I will include it here, on the off chance that it might be useful. "our Stakes family came into America in the early 1600's on a ship they owned out of the West Indies called The Pilgrim of Virginia".

In all my reading and research I have yet to come across anything to do with the Stakes owing a ship for heavens sake. I could be wrong but I don't think so.

The other ancestor was a Patrick Stakes but beyond a name that is all I have which really isn't helpful.

Thanks for any help or direction to go in.

Kayellen

[mikestakes]

hi there i have the surname of stakes

[klnstakes]

Hi Mike, How are you?