I noticed today that it is more than 10 years since I created this website and started to document my family. I am not sure where that 10 years has gone.

I have met a number of family members that I would never have known from people finding information about their family on my website and contacting me. Family from other parts of Australia, the UK and the USA have taken the time to reach out to me and I am very happy to have been able to meet a number of them.

I have been wondering if there is any interest out there for family members to use my website to record and publish their family history. While the site was created with the expectation that I and a couple of close relations would do the management and updating, it would seem that I would gather a lot more information faster if others had the ability to enter updates as well.

If you have any interest in using my website to publish your part of the family please let me know using the Contact button above.    More..▸

Casely

This interesting surname, with variant spellings Casley, Casely, Causley, Kesley, Caseley, etc., is of English locational origin from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from the maps in Britain. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348 also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The component elements of the name are believed to be the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "C(e)atta", a byname meaning cat, plus "leah", an open place in a wood, clearing; hence "C(e)atta's clearing". The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 16th Century (see below). Other recordings of the surname from the Yorkshire church registers include; Sarah, daughter of William and Margaret Caisley, who was christened on January 1st 1755, at Hornsey, and John Caisley married Elizabeth Weight at Foston on the Wolds, on May 14th 1788. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Steven Caslay, witness at christening, which was dated March 10th 1576, in Bilton Ainsty, Yorkshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Read more

French

This ancient surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is from an ethnic name for someone from France, derived from the Middle English (1200 - 1500) "frennsee, frenche" a development of the Olde English pre 7th Century "frencisc", meaning french. In some cases it may originally have been more that a nickname for someone who adopted French airs. Irish bearers of the surname are said to be descended from Theophilus de Frensche, a Norman baron who accompanied William the Conqueror in 1066, a branch of whose descendants settled in County Wexford in circa 1300.    More..▸

I would like to thank those people that have taken a look at this site and specially those that have left messages.

While there is not a lot of site traffic at this point, I am sure you have heard that the longest journey starts with a single step.

To those people doing genealogy on the Ironmonger name, I am more than happy to publish your information here. As you can see, my Ironmonger family is mostly in Australia and descends from England.

It would be great to get Ironmonger history for families from other parts of England or descendants in other parts of the world and eventually I hope to find family connections.
   More..▸