| Geograph British Isles Project | Aims to collect at geograph.org.uk geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland
Heysham Head, Morecambe Bay
|
| Local Nostalgia | Historical Images & Maps. Photographic Publishers since 1860
|
| Use of Images |
Images from Frith or Geograph sites(above), or from FreeFoto.com (link below) may be posted in Smith Chat Topics, subject to correct source copyright.
Large collection of modern-day photographs. Free to private non-commercial individual users.
_____________________ |
| | ** A Selection of SMITH postings ** some old / some new | nb: most recent Smith Chat postings not always included in this selection
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| Surname Origin | Smith~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recorded in the spellings of Smith, Smithe, Smythe, and the patronymics Smiths, and Smithson, this is the most popular surname in the English speaking world by a considerable margin. Of pre 7th century Anglo-Saxon origins, it derives from the word 'smitan' meaning 'to smite' and as such is believed to have described not a worker in iron, but a soldier, one who smote. That he also probably wore armour, which he would have been required to repair, may have lead to the secondary meaning. The famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles sometimes known as the first newspaper, in the 9th century a.d. uses the expression 'War-Smith' to describe a valiant warrior, whilst the later medieval Guild List of specialist trades has blacksmith, whitesmith, tinsmith, goldsmith and silversmith amongst its many members, but no trade of 'smith'. These descriptions of the skilled workers of the Middle Ages were exact, and it is our opinion after studying many early records that the original smiths were probably the guards of the local lord of the manor. This would account for the singular popularity of the name, as the early social records indicate that the trades of tailor and baker were much more prevalent than that of Smith in any form. What is certain is that over five hundred coats of arms have been granted to Smith nameholders, surely an indication of the soldier background, rather than a humble ironworker. The great family Smith is 'first' in all major cities of the English speaking world, yet curiously the greatest concentration of Smith's are in Aberdeenshire, Scotland! Why this should be so is far from clear. Not surprisingly the Smith name was one of the very first into the New American colonies, being held by the famous John Smith (1580 - 1631), explorer and writer, who helped to found the state of Virginia. He was reputedly saved from execution by Pocahontas, the Indian chief's daughter, who died in England in 1622. The first recorded spelling of the family name, and probably the first surname recorded anywhere in the world, is that of Eceard Smid. This was dated 975 a.d., in the English Surname Register for County Durham, during the reign of King Edward of England, known as "The Martyr", 975 - 979 a.d.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright: Name Origin Research
Reciprocal Link & for the interest of our Users
(Not affiliated) |
| Search other Surnames' Origins |
|
| Support non-commercial sites | |
|
| | July 2009 | | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|
| | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | | |  Calendar |
|
| SMITH CHAT WORLD MAP | Members of Smith Chat's
are invited to Join the Map.
Add a Location Pointer, your Name, a Shout-out, Photo or any avatar.
|
| Who is Online ? | In total there are 4 users online :: 1 Registered, 0 Hidden and 3 Guests robert smithMost users ever online was 33 on Mon 4 May 2009 - 4:57 |
| Statistics | We have 206 registered users
The newest registered user is dprior
Our users have posted a total of 15626 messages in 2794 subjects
|
| UK Vital Records: Free Online Transcriptions | Heartfelt thanks from everyone at Smith Project to those volunteer transcribers who enable the following databases for the
benefit of us all.
--
The FreeUKGEN Projects
--
UKBMD.org
BMDs, Census, MI's and
OPC (Parish Registers)
--
--
--------------------------------------
Many more Essential and Useful links
for Genealogy Research, at
--------------------------------------
-- |
| Spread the Word about Smith Chat | |
____ |
|
