Rileys - tracing a possible gypsy link

[CalvinGommer]

Hi there,

I am trying to find out more about a possible gypsy (Roma?) link in my family tree. My great grandad told my dad that "he was from gypsy stock" (I'm using gypsy as this was the term he used)  but refused to speak anymore about his family. We know he was put in a children's home when he was very young. The family tree doesn't show any obvious evidence for this link though so far - very typical English names doing labouring jobs generation after generation and living within a small radius of Staffordshire/Warwickshire. In the paper trail they seem to live in standard addresses. His family seem to be as English as can be on paper. I would be tempted to dismiss the gypsy link except that my great grandad used to go very dark in the summer as well as having dark brown eyes and very dark hair - and was teased when he was in the British army in India for looking like a local. Seeing the photographs he did look more Indian than ethnic English.

Do you know if there were known Roma communities who settled down in Staffordshire/Warwickshire ? Do you know if  Riley and Cox surnames in this area were connected to Roma families?

Thanks

[Talacharn]

I do not have Cox in my findings, but Riley can be a traveller name. In the early to mid-1800s several of the Scamp family moved from Devon into Bristol and then South Wales. I have found Scamp baptisms as Riley, possibly used as there were notable family members called Riley Scamp. In Wales, they used Williams to blend in with the locals and mixed with, even married into Boswell and Lee families, both traveller names.