Just a reminder to be careful basing inferences about social history on
evidence from surnames : in a culture in which marriage women generally
took their husband's surname, the so-called 'extinction' of a surname
says nothing about the continued importance of female family connections.
Anyone who attempts to understand colonial Virginia society (I dare say
pre-WWII Virginia) without being aware of sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins,
sisters-in-law, etc. is going to miss more than half the story.
Jon Kukla
obscures
> Another website that has just become live that might be useful is the new
> British Surname Profiler at University College, London. This will show you
> the historical distribution of surnames originating in the British Isles
> and whether their roots are English, Scottish or Irish or originally from
> abroad. The site can be found at
> http://www.spatial-literacy.org/index.php?p=familyname
>
> Incidentally, Rolfe is an English name with a particular regional
> distribtion, being found almost exclusively in the south east of England.
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "John P. Adams" <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 6:11 PM
>>Subject: Re: MALICK'S PIRATES OF THE CHESAPEAKE
>>
>>
>>> Not to change the subject, totally. However I have a very serious
>>> question.
>>> Is it possible that ROLFE is not a Rolfe, but ROSSE. I cannot find any
>>> Rolfe's in the English name books and since I am little familiar with
> the
>>> Germanic script of this time. The double SS format would look Ro"lf"e
>>> instead off the spelling ROSSE.
>>> Can any of you help me out.
>>> Thank you,
>>>
>>> John Philip Adams
>>>
>
> Dr Matthew C. Ward
> University of Dundee
> Dundee, DD1 4HN
> SCOTLAND
>
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>
Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463
Fax 434-376-2647
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