Personal & Surname Index

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Some Suggestions to Identifying the Place Names in the Devonshire Domesday

by

Rev Oswald J Reichel, B.C.L. & M.A., F.S.A.

Trans. Devon Assoc., vol. XXVI, (1894), pp. 133-167.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper was presented in August at the Association’s July 1894 South Molton Conference. Rev Reichel’s comprehensive place name analysis is linked to the Association’s Domesday Committee’s having recently transcribed and translated the Devonshire section of Domesday. The author suggests a process for dealing with the place-names found in the Book. His purpose is primarily to understand what the names are intended to describe. Then to consider what the names represented with regard to their pronunciation, and finally to investigate the several collateral aids useful in determining their identity A great many of Devon’s ancient place names are linked with, or tied to the names of the original land owners, so that the paper becomes a treasury of the very early Devon individual and family names that are linked to land possession. One that is of inestimable value to the genealogist. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.