Surname Saturday - Redwood

Surname Saturday is a regular blog post in which I will discuss the origins and geography of the surnames which appear in my own family tree.

This week's surname is REDWOOD

John & Jane Davidson (nee Redwood)

Variants: Readwood, Ridewood, Redewood, Reedwood, 

Redwood is a locational surname for a person who came from the villages of Redworth in Devon or Durham, or even a lost village by the name of "Redwood". It could also have derived from a person who lived near or close to a red wood.

The highest locational density of Redwood families in 1891 was in London with 17% and Devon and Somerset with 15%

My 3x great grandmother was a Redwood, she was called Jane Redwood and married, John Davidson. Jane was born in Herne, Kent and her family were from various towns along this stretch of the Kent coastline. Many of the men were mariners and worked at sea. (You can read more about Jane and her family at the The Davidson Family - Chapters 5-7)


Information from:
SurnameDB - Redwood
House of Names - Redwood
Ancestry Surname Distribution - Redwood

Merchant Navy Ancestors

As I blogged a few days ago, FindMyPast (FMP) had an offer of a month subscription for £1 so I had to take advantage of such a great offer, but what have I found with my subscription?

The main target of my FMP research was the Merchant Navy collection which has been on their site for a little while now. When it was first put on I was really interested in researching the collection as I was aware that my Redwood ancestors were in the Merchant Navy. What was the Merchant Navy?

The merchant navy was a register of all the ships and seamen employed in shipping goods. In times of conflict the merchant navy would be called upon to assist as necessary, the most famous event in which this occurred was in the evacuation of Dunkirk in May & June 1940.

My ancestors who were merchant seamen were the Redwood's, who lived on the Kent coast in Herne. My 3x great grandmother, Jane Redwood moved to London and married John Davidson (see The Davidson Family for more information about their story). The Merchant Seamen whom I have discovered records for are Jane's 5 brothers: Stephen, William, George, Alfred & Jesse.

Some of the records are a bit sparse of information but a few of them give descriptions of her brother's appearances...

George Redwood

Stephen Redwood

William Redwood

...I find descriptions help you imagine what your ancestors may have looked like, fair and auburn with blue/grey eyes. I am blonde with blue eyes so I wonder if it was this side of the family I got these genes from? They were also all quite short, but perhaps that is a generational thing, I wonder what the average height of a man in 1850 was?

What records or collections have you discovered recently?