tbh dunkirk in the blean was a 5000 acre forest and was a vast squatter and gypsy settlement. also many came into the area for the fruit and hop picking seasons. the king family are related to us as a female elizabeth tong married a king. king is also a common gypsy name. as for your dna well that should be checked against his male relatives known family whom i believe moved to canada. although one in the navy claims to be his great nephew.check your dna against his.its common for gypsies to call side relations cousins,same as in the old days and especially in the usa today. close family friends would also be referred to as ''auntie'' ive done it myself. why dont you ask faversham/swale council where they got the records from. theres was no actual village of dunkirk just scattered home built dwellings . my family owned about 4 places around there. but we arent gypsies,mine were rabid puritans.2 of them were called ''acts apostles'' ive also seen youve asked before on here redroger about gypsies, well i believe some of your other names are too. tbh. i do too however have several cousins who are married to gypsies and their children are my cousins and i have many gypsy friends. a lot of homeless lived in these ''itinerant camps'' as the govt called them,there was a huge one at fawkham in kent . perhaps they had relatives there. also that name eli sounds suspiciously like a gypsy name as the christian ones usually took biblical names. eli means god in hebrew ,go on the RTFHS site where they keep all the records for travellers,its a brilliant site. if cornwell was there then it was probably for the fruit or hop picking,also eyres is another version of ayres. tbh ive seen gypsies even get names wrong on here,someone asked is loveridge a gypsy name and some ''expert'' said no, well hes wrong too because it is.and very common. in fact im certain that this cornwell and eli family has gypsy roots. i was just about to post this when you asked me about the kings religion. well my tong family were puritans originally, so were the sellings/shillings and the branchetts were huguenots and many in that area were non conformists and it was a hotbed of puritans ,but puritanism was gradually stamped apon by the c of e. my gran used to go with 100s of others on a sunday to listen to the travelling preacher at shottenden woods where theres a pulpit cut out of the banks,he came on horseback. he was probably baptist or methodist. theres still old chapels about the area. my gran was born 1888. her grandfather born about 1830 lived at shottenden but he was born dunkirk as was her grandmother mary tong. and her father too , the c of e had a campaign against them imposing tithes apon their churches in an effort to stamp them out.i would imagine they would now be c of e. i mean the names in my family lol there were two ''acts apostles'' isaac was my 3 x great grandad, there were josiah's josephs and many more, they were puritans. i believe that king family still existed in the area when i was a kid,i remember spencer king was a wealthy contractor but believe his son died but think they are still about the blean area. they arent gypsies anymore . if they were that is. gypsies were originally restricted by law and could only reside in the woods.
