Re: Origin of Dolloff
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In reply to:
Origin of Dolloff
Dustin Dolloff 7/30/08
Oh Dear, it seems that "Russian Nobleman story got around due to some minister publishing a history/genealogy book sometime during the early 20th century. It's absolutely not true.A family of Dolloff’s , Jeanne Lowenthal, her sister Diane Meckleburg, and their brothers Christian & John all did extensive research of historical records and went to the New Hampshire courts and historical societies to research.
What is fact is Christian was illiterate, and we are 99% sure he spoke Scottish Gaelic not English.He learned English in New Hampshire, and therefore spoke with a heavy Scottish brogue and his pronunciation of things was different than the English. He was an indentured servant at Lissen's sawmill in what is now Dover NH for 7 years until 1656 or so.He was befriended by a wealthier man (also a Scott) named John Mac Bean. He was left some property by his first wife's relative Moulton, and then he was given land by the town of Exeter to relocate and settle there. He was given acreage there at least twice. His property was surrounded by property owned by at least three other Scotts who were also indentured servants. We believe from the general history of the other Scottish Indentured servants that the original Christian was a teenage prisoner from Cromwell’s war. He was brought to New England and put in indentured servitude by the English until he secured his "freedom' at the end of his servitude. Since there were so many recorded spellings of Dolloff during Christians lifetime, no one knows the correct Scottish Spelling nor where he came from and therein lies the problem with tracing our heritage past Christian himself.I am investigating that the spelling may have been Dollas. (At one point one published book possibly by Harriett??? said his name was Christian Logardin Dolloff. However someone with a Scottish brogue may have been actually saying:
Crisdean Logar d'in Dollas which would translate to Cris's son of the town of Dollas (Scottland). So we are working on it but the Russian nobleman thing is a total myth!
Jean Marie Dolloff-Haubert
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Re: Origin of Dolloff
Phil Dolliff 11/05/08