Is the name Worgan German? (General)

by peteressex , Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 09:05 (4387 days ago) @ george

George, I've had a further look at this as I'm very distantly related to Worgans from Woolaston who date from about 1700. Bear in mind also that there are prior threads on this forum involving the name Worgan where you might pick up something of interest.

Take a while to wander through the transcribed parish records on this site. You'll need a while too, as there are over 2,000 Worgan entries, not surprisingly as it appears from elsewhere that 5% of all instances of this surname occur in Gloucestershire. You'll find for example that the Worgans of Staunton go back to a burial in 1685 and a marriage in 1687, but even in those days they were liberally spread across the Forest. The earliest I just saw was a burial of Robert Worgan, son of Thomas, at Awre in 1538 which is as early a trace as you get from parish records. They were also numerous well over 300 years ago in parishes such as Hewelsfield, St Briavels and particularly Newland where there had been 24 baptisms of Worgans by 1600, often coming from what's transcribed as Clowerwall which again is the subject of prior threads and probably means Clearwell. There is also evidence of Worgans at Newnham in the 1590s.

Given such prolific circumstantial evidence, it seems highly likely that the Worgans both in Staunton and elsewhere were numerous as indigenous Forest folk long before any viable suggestion of a German Worgan could arise, but if you do find proof of it, obviously a lot of people would be fascinated.