My father’s family tree

It was my father’s 60th birthday back in April. To help him celebrate Anna and I presented him with this family tree (high-res here). The whole project took about two weeks to complete and although we still have some gaps on the Dodson line (Irish records being less complete than English ones) we did manage to trace our ancestory back to 1582, to the small hamlet of Noke in Oxfordshire. Other branches stretch out to Licolnshire and through our home county of Yorkshire. My darling Anna drew the image above, adding much attractive detail to the drawing.

On a self-depracating note, as part of my research I did uncover the origins of the name Dodson. According to the Internet Surname Database, Dodson is “a patronymic of the Middle English given name “Dodde, Dudde”, from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal byname “Dodda, Dudda”, And its meaning? Ahem, Dodda or Dudda is ultimately from a Germanic root “dudd, dodd”, meaning “something rounded” and used to denote a “short, rotund man.” Which delighted Anna no end.

Can I also add a note of thanks to both Paul Weaver, who through the shared ancestor of Thomas Stokes I was able to trace our Oxfordshire roots as far back as to Queen Elizabeth’s reign; and Jacky Clarke, who through our shared ancestor, Camack Lammyan,I was able to trace our line through Coningsby in Licolnshire to discover that one of our forebears, Peter Desforges, was a huguenot refugee who landed in Tower Wharf, not far from my old stomping ground of Brick Lane in east London, in 1681. Many thanks to you both.