Lloyd researcher is seeking clues

• By DAMON VEACH
• Special to Magazine
• Published: Jul 20, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The name Lloyd is a variation of the Welsh word llwyd or clwyd, which means “gray” or “brown.” The double-l represents the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative of Welsh and was sometimes also represented as fl, yielding the related name Floyd. Bob Rivers-Smith (robkele@xtra.co.nz) of New Zealand is compiling information on his Lloyd lineage and would like to learn more if possible.

His great grandfather was John Lloyd, a master mariner, and his family originated in Wales. He set up a trading post on the Island of Gau in Fiji. He married a Loraini Rawa, and they had two daughters, Loraini and Jesse. 

Compared to other ancient cultures found in the British Isles, the number of Welsh surnames are relatively few. However, in some cases, there are lots of spelling variations. With Lloyd, you also have Llwyd, Lloid, Loyd, Loid, Lwyd and others.

This surname is first found in Montgomeryshire, located in mid-Eastern Wales, one of 13 historic counties, and anciently, the medieval kingdom of Powys Wenwynwyn, where they held a family seat from very ancient times.

The general population was generally or almost entirely illiterate and literary languages had inconsistent rules regarding spelling. As a result, people could not specify how to spell their own names leaving the specific recording up to the individual scribe or priest. These recorders would spell the names as they heard them. This is a common practice with much of the immigration records of those people coming to this country.

Many people from Wales joined the general migration to North America in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were searching for land, work, and freedom. Like the many other immigrants from the British Isles, they made a significant contribution to the development of Canada and the United States.

Some of the first U.S. settlers of this family name were David Lloyd, who settled in Virginia in 1635. He was followed by James Lloyd in 1654. Thomas Lloyd settled in Jamaica with his three sons, Mordecai, John and Thomas, and they moved to Philadelphia in 1666. The Welsh and their descendants added a rich cultural tradition to the newly developed towns, cities, and villages in America.
 
Rivers-Smith is working on a book about his family now, and he is documenting the reasons why his ancestors decided to come to and to remain in Fiji. It would appear that settlement in the Pacific region came much earlier than that in America. Any information on this arrival in Fiji would be appreciated.

Three classics
The Genealogical Publishing Company has announced the return of three New York classics by Fred Q. Bowman. 10,000 Vital Records of Western New York, 1809-1850 is the title of one, and this includes marriage and death columns of five western New York newspapers published before 1850.

Birth announcements were not published in these early papers, but many of the marriage and death notices made mention of birth years, birthplaces, and parents’ names.

In this book, bridegrooms and all those who were subjects of death notices are listed in alphabetical order. Marriage officials are identified in the appendix, while all other persons mentioned in the text are listed in the index. Towns of residence are by no means confined to western New York. Communities in the rest of the state as well as New England and the Mid-West are frequently identified.

The bulk of the work, however, concerns itself with the marriages and deaths of residents of western New York, and in the absence of official vital records of the area, it stands as an admirable substitute. Like official records of a later date, the records of marriage and death abstracted here furnish names, ages, dates, places of residence and frequent references to family members, and a good deal of other information besides.

No other work available covers the genealogical records of western New York so comprehensively, nor indeed does any other work hold out so much promise for the discovery of long lost ancestors.

This volume is priced at $43.50, postpaid, and it can be ordered from Genealogical Publishing Company, 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 260, Baltimore, MD 21211-1953. This is only one of three volumes by Bowman.