Saturday, October 24, 2009

Dear Mr Griffin

I live in Somerset but I don't come from there. I come from the place of the Mercia tribe, Brum, although I am not descended from Mercians as they were defeated by one or more invading armies (Romans, Vikings, Mid-Europeans) and legged it to the hills of Wales and Scotland. So I am descended from those cowardly Mercians who remained to inter-breed with the invading armies as life settled down.

'Cept I'm not. Because my surname, so the records show, was changed from Tillé to Tilley because the Cornish couldn't cope with writing the name of the French labourers who had pitched up looking for work in the seventeenth/eighteenth century.

Now I would be guessing at this point, but population movement probably didn't make those immigrating-folk pure Breton. Frankly their record-keeping was a sack of pants (dirty) so I can't say with certainty. Italy? Spain? North Africa? Anyway they were all joined up once (a bit before people came along, I accept) and international boundaries still cause the odd dispute, you may have noticed.

Please help me. To where would you like me to return?

6 comments:

Mike Peatman said...

Should that read Mr Griffin? or did I miss a subtle gag...?

David Keen said...

Griffin is a Cornish/Welsh name, so it may have been one of NG's ancestors who caused this in the first place.

Marcella said...

Good point, well made.

Steve Tilley said...

Thanks Mije. It was a mispring. I have chanted ti.

Mike Peatman said...

coog

Fr Matthew McMurray said...

Because your skin (I'm assuming) is white, you should be ok for the time being until they find you out!

In the meantime, do you think that I should figure out where my ancestors are from, just in case? (Somewhere in Ireland I think--there seem to be lots of McMurrays in 'Northern' Ireland.)