The Presswood Story

Fig 0.1 - Surname distribution map for the
Presswood family name

The surname Presswood OR Prestwood could be derived from "a dweller by the Priest's wood". There is also a village in Buckinghamshire and a place in Sussex both named Prestwood in which the name could have evolved from.

Presswood is a very rare surname and in the 1891 census there were only 72 families with this surname in England, 29 were found in Yorkshire and 20 in Lincolnshire. Although Prestwood, it's variant surname is more common, there are still only 195 families with this surname in England in the 1891 census. 42 of these families are found in Lincolnshire, 31 in Lancashire, 25 in Shropshire and Glamorganshire. (See the surname distribution map 1891 at www.ancestry.co.uk)

My Presswood family

My maternal grandmother was a Presswood at birth. She was born in a small village in north Lincolnshire named Glentworth. The Presswood family line can be traced back to the early nineteenth century and another small village called Bransby in north Lincolnshire only ten miles away. The Presswood family had not travelled far in two hundred years!

My grandmother was the third child and oldest girl to George Henry Presswood and Ethel nee Fletcher, who had eight children altogether. They began their married life in Glentworth, where George Henry worked as an agricultural labourer.

The Fletcher family

More to follow soon....

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan