My Main Research Lines

 Although I have researched all Romany Families ,I have obviously concentrated on my main Lines and therefor accumulated far more information on certain families. As I have been doing Genealogy research for over 25 years it would be impossible to put all the information on a web site .

 I do how ever feel that its good to share one's information as only by sharing can we add or correct Genealogical data which can only be a good thing, and I well remember when I first started having to travel to all the relevent Record offices and Reference libraries for Census and Baptism's and other records such as Settlement and Removal orders and so on . Now we have the web !! So its a lot easier for people to trace their family from their own home ,having said that nothing is easy with Romany families !by nature they were Travelling all over the Country and also their unusual christain names's are a nightmare as the enumerator often wrote it as he heard it and quite often was given "public" name as opposed to the Romany family name. So if the Little I put on my site helps some one then thats great ,of course if you see any mistakes or you can correct me please email me . I have only listed the most common Romany names and my main lines I have highlighted
 
 
  AYRES   JAMES     WELLS 
  BALL   JOHNSON  WHITE
  BARNES     KEET/KEATS     WHITLOCK  Below is Anselina and Alfred Doe abt 1902/3
  BARNEY   LAMB
  BUCKLAND LEE
  BUCKLEY LIGHT
  COOPER   LOVELL
  COLE LOVERIDGE
    DENNIS   MATHEWS
  DIXON MARTIN
   DOE MITCHELL       DRAPER PANNEL
  EYRES PATEMAN
  GREY/GRAY PETERS
   HUGHES  PIDGELY
  HOPE SHERRING
  HEARN/ SHERWOOD
  HURN/HERON SMITH
   HOLLAND   STANLEY
 

 
Frank Cuttriss author of the book Romany Life published in 1915 ,lists the names of the most well known families that were present at his time in the Forest as well as other known families as such:-
  Ayres,Allen,Barney , Black,Brazil,Boswell,Bosvil,Buckley,Buckland,Carew,Cooper,Corrie, James,Lakey,Lovell,White,Saunders,Willett,Rickman. Churen,Doe,Deighton,Fenner,Hughes,Glover,Lee,Shaw,Loveridge, Scotch surnames:-Young,Ruthven,Blythe,Fleekie,Faa.

  It's interesting as while I have come across most of the above names, I have not as yet come across the name Churen >?although the name is also mentioned in the book Gypsies of Britain by Brian Vessey -Fitzgerald, likewise I have not come across the name Corrie or Fleekie or Ruthven for Scottish travellers?maybe they took on different names later as many families I have known to change their surnames when it suited them for one reason or another.

  Romany life has some wonderfull photographs of the Forest families including Coopers,Wells,Stanley,Burton and Harfield to name a few. It has many conversations between the author and the folks he was writing about, all recorded as it was spoken to him, both in romanes and good old Hampshire and Dorset dialect a wonderfull time capsule of the language as it was spoken in the early 1900s, and the life as it was then, much more relaxed and slower paced ,and often amusing and at times sad, but well worth getting the book if you can manage to find it as it is quite rare now.

 Another book which will be of interests to people with family from Dorset or the New Forest ,is Gypsies of the Heath by the 'Romany Rawnie' Aka Betty Gillington published 1915 .The author travelled in a vardo and made friends with the Forest Gypsies and also many Hampshire travellers are mentioned and described in a most informal way often amusing and very down to earth, and the book is written as it was spoken first hand to the rawnie!which makes for very interesting and colourful reading! The main familes mentioned are the Stanley's and Barney families ,although the Barneys are not mentioned by name but through my research I know it to be the family of Ameline and Britannia Barney (nee Smith.) and Clara Stanley the old mother of the Stanley tribe at that time. Other families at that time would have included the Pages,Sherred,Gritt, Bowers,Cole,Sheen,Lee Doe/Peters/Penfold/White/Jeff/Cooper/Smith/Sheen/Pidgley/Lakey/Sherwood/Pateman and Eyres and also the James family of course and probably more!.But its the Barney and Stanley family that the author speaks off most in the book so if these are your folks try getting the book its a great read and describes their lives just as they were be it good or bad! even describes some of the babies christening and the clothes the parents wore and the sing songs afterwards with old Silas and Jim lying motto(drunk) in the grass and the little gals being trashed to go by him in case they woke them ,and not forgetting the old Chovahani (witch) who they say could have been a Cooper.

Also featuring Dorset and Wiltshire Gypsies and wrote in 1940 is the book the Gorse And The Briar by Patrick A. McEvoy  , Who travelled with his brother

Christopher .C. McEvoy who also did eight line Drawings for the book. This book again wrote in the same informal fashion of the obove mentioned books,
maybe because of the fact that they lived and travelled and shared intimate moments with the folk they were later to write about ,is the reason why so many of the books about Gypsies on the road seem to be wrote in this delightful style?.