Re: OT Ethnotypes WAS Re: FWD [OT but interesting]....

Roger Mills scripsit:

> The first known US Mills, however, does seem to have lived in a
> Welsh/English settlement in Western Pennsylvania, and married the dau. of a
> neighboring family, named Phillips (again, not very Welsh sounding-- tho
> they did have a son named Evan).  What, if anything, was going on in Wales
> in the mid 1700s that would have induced presumably English residents to
> emigrate???  Or just general poverty? :-)
My understanding is that surnames of the form firstname + -s are Welsh,
the most well-known of which is Jones < John.  (Of course these names
have spread to many English families as well; names are very mobile.
There is a well-known Scottish family Phillips too, probably of
Welsh origin.)

Here's a good article on the subject written in 1979:

http://www.korrnet.org/welsh/files/jbdavies.html

--
John Cowan        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan          jcowan@reutershealth.com
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