Searching For Surnames by John Titford (Countryside Books, £11.95)
IN order to discover the origin of today's surnames we need to establish which language may have given rise to them in the first place.
They may be derived from as wide a variety of sources as Old Norse to the Indian sub-continent.
It seems that Britain has been the Clapham Junction of peoples and languages over many centuries. But it is precisely this factor that makes genealogy such a fascination pastime.
John Titford is an acknowledged expert. If you are searching for your roots then you could do a lot worse than allow him to be your guide down the path of the dim and distant past.
John Phillpott
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