Hi Gary I've put a response on the Talk:Clan_Nesbitt page - you are right that the possible English sources of the surname should be mentioned (although the main subject of the page is the Scottish clan), and there is now a new section that does this. However, Nesbitt (in whatever spelling) was absent from the English surname directories I have checked, and I have seen numerous Northumberland/Durham family trees and they all start in the 17th century - not earlier. I have checked county histories for the English places and they do [not] seem to be occupied by people with our surname. So it's still an open question as to whether the surname goes back to medieval times. Scots do have a long history of travel - to England as well as Ireland and North America. Do you have published references to any medieval Nesbitts in England that could be cited in the article? Mark Nesbitt ( talk) 18:31, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
- Hi Gary - although census records might start late, there is a vast volume of historical records for northern England pre-dating 1700, and a very considerable body of scholarship ("prosopography") devoted to the investigation of personal names in that period. Good starting points for this include the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy [ [1]] and the online catalogues of archives at Durham Cathedral [ [2]] and in County Record Offices in Durham and Northumberland. Previously published work on the subject can be located using the RHS Bibliography www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/ and IHR Library catalogue [ [3]]. Mark Nesbitt ( talk) 03:43, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
Hi Gary I've put a response on the Talk:Clan_Nesbitt page - you are right that the possible English sources of the surname should be mentioned (although the main subject of the page is the Scottish clan), and there is now a new section that does this. However, Nesbitt (in whatever spelling) was absent from the English surname directories I have checked, and I have seen numerous Northumberland/Durham family trees and they all start in the 17th century - not earlier. I have checked county histories for the English places and they do [not] seem to be occupied by people with our surname. So it's still an open question as to whether the surname goes back to medieval times. Scots do have a long history of travel - to England as well as Ireland and North America. Do you have published references to any medieval Nesbitts in England that could be cited in the article? Mark Nesbitt ( talk) 18:31, 21 June 2008 (UTC)
- Hi Gary - although census records might start late, there is a vast volume of historical records for northern England pre-dating 1700, and a very considerable body of scholarship ("prosopography") devoted to the investigation of personal names in that period. Good starting points for this include the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy [ [1]] and the online catalogues of archives at Durham Cathedral [ [2]] and in County Record Offices in Durham and Northumberland. Previously published work on the subject can be located using the RHS Bibliography www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/ and IHR Library catalogue [ [3]]. Mark Nesbitt ( talk) 03:43, 26 June 2008 (UTC)