Latest News [28th Dec 2012]

Happy New Year Everyone!

Major update to records done today. Just a couple of figures that show how far we've gotten... There are a total of 3164 records in the Births database, of these

• 2249 have been found in various census.
• 1956 have at least one of their parents listed, most of these have both.
• 1881 have their mothers maiden name listed.

Click on link to see update on the Pers ID's.

About the Powis One-Name Study

I originally started out trying to find my 3rd great grandfather Joseph Powis, born in Gloucestershire somewhere between 1811 & 1815. I started collecting everything I could find on the surname Powis & variants, hoping to eliminate every other Joseph, leaving me with one...mine. To see how far I've managed to get click here

Origin of the surname

We do not know exactly when our family took the surname Powis but we can make an educated guess. We know that people called Powis appear in parish records in the late 15th century, in the north of Shropshire. It seems very likely that the surname was first used when our ancestors moved to England from Wales. Surnames had been used in England from the 13th century; they were not used in Wales until the 17th. A family moving to England would need a surname, and could well have used the area they moved from as such.

It is important to realise that Powis is not a typical Welsh surname. In fact it was almost certainly first used when our ancestors moved from near Meifod in present day Powys to North Shropshire. Most Welsh surnames only date from the 17th century and are almost always patronyms. John ap Richard or Ellen ferch Richard, son and daughter of Richard could take the surname Richards or Pritchard (ap Richard). ?Powis? probably dates from the 15th Century and was first used after the family settled in Shropshire.
[written by Mick Powis. To read the rest click here.]

Names included [when found] are:

Powis, Powiss, Powys, Powyss, Powes, Powess, Powice, Powies.
Plus an assortment of hyphenated Powis & Powys such as Powys-Lybbe,
Powys-Keck & others.

 

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