A Short Piece Of Prose (normal service will be resumed as soon a possible)

I wrote this in response to a short writing exercise in a new group on Facebook, The CreateYourself Writing Workshop.

I had had this on my mind for sometime and a couple of things came together, so here it is whilst I am again finding difficulty  scheduling time for poetry.

The Dyhouse Family Name

I was asked yesterday where my surname came from; my wife has always asked about the name when we have been to craft shows or passed shops offering to print out histories of family names. However to no avail.

 I considered doing a little research once upon a time but found the free trial period on one of the largest genealogy sites to be particularly unhelpful and decided not to carry on with paid research. I found records for my parents but nothing helpful or definite for their family members. Maybe it was me I don't know? However I did not find the site useful enough to pay their inflated prices.

 As a carrot to make me return and pay the membership fee for the site, they e-mailed me (of course!) with a history of my family name, which I later found for free on a completely different site, crafty! This is almost the only data I have managed to find on the subject. Although I have had more than one query from Dyhouse's living in the US. But I have no information about a member of the family emigrating to the states.

 It seems that if you want to do any on-line research in this popular hobby, you have to pay for the privilege. I do not pay for information on the internet, unless I am sure what I am paying for. I do not throw hard-earned money after possibilities.

 It seems that one possibility is that it dates back to 1576 (or thereabouts) and comes from an alternative to the Welsh name Dai or David. This itself is derived from Hebrew.

 A second possibility is that the name is from a location in Shropshire, UK; Dayhouse or Lower Dayhouse. The earliest records of the name in Shropshire date from 1169 and mention a Henry Deyose.

 Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

 I am surprised that no mention is made of the possibility that the name came from the garment or cloth making industries where early cottage industries must have made use of a special place for dyeing cloth, etc. Maybe it was too common; though of course we have surnames like Butcher, Farmer, Tailor, Baker, etc.

A fuller history is available from the source: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Dyhouse