CHESTERS/CHESTER

I've just joined this list having read through some of the extensive archive.

I am a direct CHESTER of Cumbernauld, Glasgow, Lanarkshire family in the ancestry of which the name is written CHESTERS. I never knew my natural father Robert Rowat CHESTER b 1915 but have since found a grand daughter of his brother. I have a family tree dating back to 1780 when Edward CHESTER married Mary DUNCAN whose son Edward CHESTER married Elizabeth PARK and it appears they did so in Ireland.

From what I saw of the archives, it seems, hopefully there are some listers with similar associations with the name who might aid in my knowledge of it.

Nathaniel Taylor...

Reaney & Wilson (Dictionary of English Surnames, 3d rev. ed.) say "...
usually from Chester (Ches) but occasionally from Little Chester
(Derby), Chester le Street (Durham), or Chesters (Northumb)."

The problem with such geographically-oriented surnames, is that the name
was probably not adopted as a hereditary surname until at least one
generation after the name-holder *left* whatever town to which the name
was meant to refer. Therefore, however far back you trace your own
line's use of the surname, you may never know precisely from which
'chester' (fort, castrum) town the line originated. Your Scots-Irish
line may indeed have come from Durham or Cheshire or Northumberland or
Derby, or maybe from somewhere else where the word was used as a town-
or village-name.

Renia...

Not only that, but foundlings (abandoned babies) were often named after
the cities or villages (or streets) where they were found in the later
period and may not have medieval origins at all.

I stopped at the Roman cavalry fort at Chesters (in Northumberland, on
Hadrian's Wall) while passing through this winter. Lovely spot.

Nat Taylor

a genealogist's sketchbook:
http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/leaves/

Janet, UK