Hi, John: I believe that people generally used an alias when for some reason they adopted another name, perhaps for inheritance purposes, or when there was an out-of-wedlock birth. Regarding the name of Farrow, the given name Pharaoh (yes like the Egyptians!) has run in my family for almost four hundred years. I believe that at first the name was Farrow (or Farrar), and that my immigrant ancestors as puritans and dissidents went to the Old Testament for the spelling. Best regards, Stephanie On Wed, Jul 11, 2012 at 7:53 AM, John E Farrow <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi > > I have just noticed the pointer to some Sfk Indices, which includes the parish of Woolpit, in which there are some references to FARROW or FARRAR alias OXFORD(E) between 1595 to 1638. > > My oldest ancestor is a Thomas FERRAR alias OXFORD(/OXFORTH) bn c. 1535 in the nearby Bury St Edmunds, later ordained as a catholic cleric and then again as a protestant, finishing up in the parish of Langham near Colchester where he left a will in 1606. In this he wished to be buried between ‘my two wives’ but only refers to the 2nd by inference. He also mentions a ‘brother’ George FARRER a cleric of Flowton, Sfk > > Does anyone know of any other FARRER/OXFORD references in this period – or why they might have used the dual surnames ? > > I had wondered if his 1st wife had been a FERRAR and he took her surname for inheritance reasons, or maybe to distance himself from his catholic origins, but now think there may have been an earlier reason for a family line with these names. I do know that in East Anglia the FERRAR etc surname links back to the 1066 era as De FERROUR. So maybe there is an equivalent OXFORDE line and the above Thomas & George have ancestors from both lines. > > TIA > > John E FARROW > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message