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Subject: Re: general query: how large or small a tree are the Giffords?
Date: 5 Jun 2002 16:53:25 -0600

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http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/CCZ.2ACIB/578.2

Message Board Post:

I think 'Gifford' (in the U.S., anyway) is a relatively common name, though therre are regional differences. I'm in Michigan and sometimes get phone calls for the two other Paul Giffords in the area. Most in the U.S. are descended from William Gifford, who settled in Sandwich, MA, by 1647. He came from England, but his origins are unknown. There were a few other Gifford immigrants in the Colonial period and in the 19th century.

In England, there seem to be two Gifford familes. One has a Norman origin (Walter Giffard came with William the Conqueror in 1066) and probably connects to the Giffards today in the Channel Islands and Normandy. This family has its home in the West Country (Devon and Somerset). A branch went early to Scotland.

The other is based in Cambridgeshire and seems to descend from one Gifard, living at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086.

Paul Gifford

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