Researching Family History

A little while ago I was lucky enough to meet some folk who were researching their family history. They were sure their ancestors had come from Loughborough, because their family name was – Loofbourrow!

Some of the Loofbourrow family at the parish church!

Before I met them, I did a quick search of the 'The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland' …

I found that Loughborough existed as a surname, ‘Loughborough’, and currently there are around 80 people with the surname in Great Britain, compared to 53 at the time of the 1881 census. The dictionary told me that Loughborough is a locative surname, so a name based on a place (unlike Fletcher, for example, which is based on the occupation of arrow-making). Having said that, the examples of people with the surname who were quoted in the dictionary didn’t actually seem to be registered as living in Loughborough (the recording dates were between 1336 and 1788)!

I searched for other variants of the name and found ‘Loughbrough’ – but all the entry said was ‘see Loughborough’! I looked also for 'Loofbourrow', but there was nothing listed in between 'Looby' and 'Look', so no Loofbourrow.

Interestingly, an internet search revealed that the surname Loofbourrow was prevalent in the US, except that there appeared to be no record of it using the exact spelling! 

So, it transpired that the family named Loofbourrow who were researching their ancestors were actually from the US, and had come over to the UK to see if they could track down their ancestors who they believed had emigrated from the UK around 1685. Well, we had a good rummage around the parish records, the poll books, and everything else we could think of that might be helpful, but could not find any Loofbourrows. The conclusion we came to was that possibly when the ancestors alighted in the US, their place of origin in the UK might have been used as their surname, and would probably have been recorded in the records exactly the way it would have sounded when being said.

Anyway, some very helpful information was eventually found, and the visitors, who were staying in a lovely local B&B called 'Holywell House', enjoyed their whistlestop tour of Loughborough, where they visited Taylors bellfoundry and saw bells being cast, and the parish church, where they saw the Burton book. They also spent some time with the very knowledgeable volunteers down at the Local and Family History Centre in the public library, who were able to help them, before they went off to continue their tour around the UK.

So, if you ever need help with tracing your own family tree, the Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers at the Local and Family History Centre in the public library come very highly recommended by me! Do pop in and see how they can help you, or if you can’t go into the library, drop them an email, or you can find them on Twitter @Loughlibvol and Instagram, too - https://www.instagram.com/lllsvgroup_loughborough/#

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posted by lynneaboutloughborough 

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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