Re: Perkins tartan/Perkins a Celtic surname?
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In reply to:
Re: Perkins tartan/Perkins a Celtic surname?
William Perkins 3/05/05
It is a well known fact that Brittany in northern France is inhabited by Celtic people who have retained their language (and also speak French).
In one version of the story, Peter Morley is French, in another he is Welsh with a French name that becomes Anglicised.In another he is a Welshman used by the Normans (who were Vikings, not Celts) who gets to England and founds the family.
It just gets more complicated and it seems that there is no way to separate truth from fiction at this point.But the clues seem to be lingusitic ones [Pierre + Kin].
Nonetheless, even if the original member of the family was not Celtic, if he settled in Wales, and his children married locally for several generations, then it may be assumed that the family became Welsh through marriage.
Other than looking at the map of England and Wales, and going by city and county names, I have no way to define what areas were Welsh or British, and there are likely people living outside the borders who are from either people.
There is Welsh ancestry from another line of my family, so I am not worried about this point particularly.But if you have evidence of this being a popular name in Wales, then no one can argue against such evidence.
If someone told you it was not a "clan" name, that sounds like reliable advice.It also points to a foreign origin for the surname.
There are plenty of Battencourts living in Portugal, and these families are definitely Portuguese.But it is well known that the name originated in England.I think the situation of the Perkins surname could be similar.