This book is the third of a five volume study of the early Romany families of Great Britain. This volume covers, in detail, the large and prominent British Romany Smith family, tracing them from their genesis in the 16th century through to the dawn of the 20th century, via parish records, newspaper reports and various other sources, which are drawn together to give a complete as possible account of each family and their subsequent development.
A4, 145 Pages, Fully name indexed and highly illustratated throughout in black and white and colour.
Feedback and Reviews
An excellent reference book to the Smiths, [that] is also also very readable. [The author] explains his reasoning about the events he has found and the connections between them. He also includes general historical information to set the family data into context. While much of the information is from parish registers, the book also includes interesting newspaper articles to expand on the stories and the text is nicely broken up into chapters covering different periods or topics and is illustrated with photos, paintings and engravings, many of them in colour. A huge amount of work has gone into researching this volume and Richard must be thanked for bringing the information it contains to a wider audience, and I hope others may also find the missing pieces of their Smith jigsaw in its pages. - Taken from a review by Dianne Sutton, Treasurer of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society, printed in Romany Routes, Vol 14 No 9, September 2019.
It takes a very courageous- and a very experienced - Romany family historian to attempt to research and write a book about the Smiths: one of Britian's most common and widely spread Romany surnames. But this is the enormous challenge that Richard Edmunds has tackled - and accomplished - in this well researched book. My own special interest is the Smith family of East Anglia and to my delight Richard devotes a complete chapter to them. I have been studying these Smiths intensively for three decades but Richard has presented me with a number of intriguing discoveries on associated lines that have set me off on welcome new paths. What's more, there can be few Romany families in the past who didn't intermarry with or travel with a Smiths or two at some time. This book is therefore an asset that I can happily recommend to everyone, no matter what surnames they are interested in. - Sharon Heppell, Editor of Romany Routes, the Journal of the Romany and Traveller Family History Society. September 2019
Excellent work as always - July 2019
Very pleased with this book. - June 2019
Perfect A+ 5⭐ would definitely recomend 😉👍- May 2019
Wonderful book, looking forward to tracing my Romany family.- 2020
Overall excellent .- 2020
Valuable resource for family history.- 2020
Other families mentioned in this volume include:
Allen
Ancorn/Anscomb
Ayres/Eyres
Baker
Ball
Bates
Bishop
Blewitt/Bluit
Boswell
Brazil
Broadway
Brown
Buckley/Buckland
Burton
Campbell
Chilcott
Clifton
Constant
Cooper
Cross
Davies
Dawson
Deighton
Dix
Dixon
Draper
Eastwood
Edwards
Esquire
Evans
Fletcher
Foster
Frankham/Frankum
French
Grant
Gray/Grey
Green
Griffiths
Hall
Harris
Hearn/Hern/Heron/Herring
Hodgkin
Holland
Jackson
James
Jenkins
Johnson
Jones
King
Lacey
Lamb
Lane
Lee
Lloyd
Locke/Lock
Lovell
Loveridge
Matthews
Middleton
Newlands
Parker
Pearce
Penfold/Pinfold
Pike
Reynolds
Robinson
Ryalls
Saunders
Scamp/Skemp/Kemp
Sharwood
Shaw
Small
Stamford
Stanley
Stephens/Stevens
Stone
Spencer
Tate
Taylor
Welch
Wenham/Wenman
White
Williams
Wilson
Wood
Young