Where do the Grigglistines come from?

[flicrat]

My 2x gr grandfather William Grigglistine was christened in St Mary's Coslany ( Norwich) on 19 Feb 1809 (and born 30 Dec 1808) to John Grigglistine ( or Grigglestein) and Elizabeth White - which sounds a fairly English name.
His brother John Grigglestein was christened at St Mary's ,PORTSEA, on 23 Feb 1806. ( Same parents and later found in Norwich on the marriage records and census returns. So ,it looks as if the family came into England,by boat, from somewhere else. There has always been a family tradition that one of our relatives was born on the high seas,so maybe that was John. William was a weaver, a beamer in some returns, so where would they have come from? No European country on the IGI seems to recognise this name under any variation of spelling. At some stage before the First World War, they changed to Girdlestone or variants,just to muddy the waters! They lived in the slums of 'Norwich over the Water' ( the weaving area) and his sons all died young. BUT the oldest was WILLIAM COLOMBO according to his death certificate. Would that have been William's paternal grandmother's maiden name?I am descended from his daughter Rachael who married Henry Jermy Miller. You are all experts, so please have some ideas for where I can go for more information! Thank you.

[Buenchico]

I've been trying a rather unscientific (but hopefully logical) approach to answering your question.

The possible 'stein' ending suggests that there might be a Germanic connection. Double letter 'g's aren't usual in German names, so I've started by trying to think of a German name similar to 'Grigelstein'. I've been repeating the word out loud, attempting to make it sound German and I quickly realised that 'Kriegelstein' is close enough to have become 'Grigglestine' if a family member moved to this country. A bit of Googling shows that 'Kriegelstein' is indeed a German surname, so perhaps that's where your ancestors came from?

OK, it's little more than guesswork but perhaps it's plausible?

Chris

[sigma]

Hope this helps
This is a locational name of East Anglian origins which derives from a now apparently "lost" hamlet near Holt in North Norfolk. The original spelling would seem to have been "Gridel's Tun", an Old English compound which translates as "The Farm of one called Gridel". The name generally retains the spelling as Girdle-stone, but there are occasional variant spellings shown such as Edmund Gurd-Leston, recorded at Field Dalling church, Norfolk 1690 - 1694, and Elizabeth Girdleston who appears in the records of Sharrington in 1721. The name is early into London, Henry Gurdelston marrying Joannah Bushey at St. Dionis Backchurch in 1698, whilst Thomas Girdlestone (1758 - 1822) was a practising doctor in Great Yarmouth for 37 years, and also an Author and Publisher of note. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Girdlestone, which was dated September 1st 1571, married at Kelling Church, Norfolk

[flicrat]

Thank you very much both of you. Buenchico that is very interesting, particularly as if they had just landed in Portsea from Europe, it may well have been an unknown name baffling the customs of the time - or whoever recorded the immigrants. Maybe I should concentrate on Germany, though I know nothing of 3x gr grandfather, so foresee difficulty ahead! Challenging! And Sigma, that perhaps explains why the Grigglistines took the name Girdlestone eventually, as it was a good ol;d English name in Norfolk,with no hint of foreigners.I am grateful for new lines of thought. Thanks again

[sigma]

Stein suggests Germanic or Jewish origin. It may be just a corruption of an English name bought about by dialect pronunciation or the spelling ability of the person entering the record. In my case, One of my ancestor lines goes from Thrume, Tharme , Farm, Tharm and finishes up at Tharme. I also have Cocks and Cox.Don't forget, if your ancestor couldn't read then they couldn't correct and spelling error.