Post by Harry Overend on Sept 9, 2003 3:34:39 GMT -5
Surnames provide the starting point for genealogical research. The name Overend is unusual but far from uncommon.
Before the Norman Conquest, surnames were rare. Names belonged to individuals, not to a family. Where this caused confusion, the individual's name was coupled with another - the place where he lived, his occupation or his relationship with someone else.
In the case of Overend, the name is derived from a dweller from the upper/outer part of the village or valley. To say that the Normans introduced the formal system of Christian names and surnames is an over-simplification. Methods of naming people which existed before 1066 continued for centuries afterwards.
The inclusion of the word de in a surname, as in William de Overende is commonly believed to be a sign of noble ancestry. In fact, it is often simply the Norman equivalent of atte, meaning 'of the' or 'from', and has in most cases undergone the same fate of sliding into the word following it, or disappearing altogether.
Whatever the generation, whichever the branch, the Overend ancestors will have been playing their part, great or humble, in the social history of their times. The facts unearthed about them will be of interest to those generations to follow.
Before the Norman Conquest, surnames were rare. Names belonged to individuals, not to a family. Where this caused confusion, the individual's name was coupled with another - the place where he lived, his occupation or his relationship with someone else.
In the case of Overend, the name is derived from a dweller from the upper/outer part of the village or valley. To say that the Normans introduced the formal system of Christian names and surnames is an over-simplification. Methods of naming people which existed before 1066 continued for centuries afterwards.
The inclusion of the word de in a surname, as in William de Overende is commonly believed to be a sign of noble ancestry. In fact, it is often simply the Norman equivalent of atte, meaning 'of the' or 'from', and has in most cases undergone the same fate of sliding into the word following it, or disappearing altogether.
Whatever the generation, whichever the branch, the Overend ancestors will have been playing their part, great or humble, in the social history of their times. The facts unearthed about them will be of interest to those generations to follow.