Huguenot-L Archives

From: <>
Subject: Personal observations
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 11:09:47 -0400

Folks,

I've been waiting what seems like an eternity for my local library to receive an interlibrary loan of the
Quarto Series Surname Index vol. 1. I've put all my hopes on finally resolving the issue of Huguenot
ancestry in this index. That might not be good. I've had nothing but frustration trying to connect my last
know ancestor to the Huguenots. I'm certain in my mind they were Huguenots or Walloons. But it
would be very good to have the proof. Sometimes it's hard to imagine why we consider such a
frustrating hobby to be fun.

In an effort to try and identify the most likely French locations of my ancestors, I've been researching the
villages that have or had the surname Tarry. (If anyone has a suggestion on where I can search for
modern Tarrys, please let me know). I've been using GeneaNet to see what Tarry records might be
available. I know this is probably not the best indicator of Tarry populations, but I'm still surprised by
the locations of most of these Tarrys. Being supposedly a name of Norman origin, I had thought there
would be many names in Normandy. However, Normandy Tarrys appear to be rare. Ile de France,
Auvergne and Aquitaine all have far more Tarrys than Normandy. I know people move around. Still it
seems there should be a concentration of the name in its area origin.

I have two possible explanations about this. Either the widely held belief that the name is of Norman
origin is wrong, or for one reason or another, the Tarrys in Normandy have greatly dwindled in
numbers. The name is not very common in France, so I could easily see the population being reduced
over hundreds of years. There seem to be more in England than in France. Perhaps most of these
Norman Tarrys were Huguenots that went to England. Any comments/suggestions would be
appreciated.

Shane

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