« Reply #21 on: Thursday 28 May 15 19:57 BST (UK) »
hi
there are many things that may come into play, you may be lucky and get info of a census but it may not state that they are gypsy or traveller it may just say ag lab, or hawker or pedlar but they are not always from a travelling family, so any family history you may have or are told may pin point their roots, certain names may indicate a traveller or gypsy, perhaps certain words or sayings as like the Romany travellers had and have their own words which are not understood by native Irish people, prior to the census you have to look at church records these may hold clues such as travelling tinker baptised, Irish travellers seem to have landed firstly in Scotland around 1100 then moved southwards into England but then you have Scottish travellers not to be confused with Irish Travellers, move forward to today and you may find English Travellers claiming to be Gypsies but in fact are just the ancestors of English peasants who took to the road and this happened in many countries of Europe but I do not believe it happened in Ireland though the very distant ancestors had been native black smiths I believe, it is rather a melting pot and for some it can be easy to identify their ancestors but for others it is one big puzzle, for me I had a bit of a head start as a cousin started doing family history in the early seventies by going to all the churches of a town that an ancestor was known to live and looked at the BMD records, I have also walked around many a church yard or cemetery to search and gather name, though the web is good it wont solve all your puzzles or answer all your questions and because travellers and gypsies did not stay in any one place for long periods it makes it a little harder to research, anyhow all the best and happy hunting.
ESSEX, KENT, LONDON, SUFFOLK, SUSSEX.
Bachelor, Baker, Beeny, Boswell, Brazil, Burgess, Carter, Clements, Cooper, Cornelius, Collins, Day, Dobson, Eastwood, Ellis, Farr, Fairbeard, Harris, Holland/s, Jenkins, Jones, Kennett, K/nave/s, Lyon, Lee, Penfold, Ransley, Robert/s, Reeve/s, Smith, Stone, Thompsett, Tomsit, Wood/s.