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

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Sunday, August 18, 2002, 1:17
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 Please leave your values | Check your assumptions. In fact, at the front desk. | check your assumptions at the door. --sign in Paris hotel | --Miles Vorkosigan