George SIAH LOVELL 1851 Wolverhampton (General)

by cortina1970, Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 22:56 (5500 days ago) @ slowhands

Hi, I am part of the Syers family up here in Warrington, The family tree for the Syers family was done for us in the 1980's, I still have a copy somewhere.
The reason for the name change, and this is what I am led to believe , not only from the genealogist, but word of mouth from family members, is that the family were became travellers (gypsies) from the Gloucester area, they moved up to Warrington , iron and wireworks being the main trade of the town, the name Lovell was a Gypsy name, and as such, with gypsies having a bad reputation, and being unemployable, when asked his name George said 'It is George, sire', sire meaning 'sir', this was then taken that his name was George Siah, and when the census was performed, it was duly filled as Siah, this was most likely done by a canvasser calling at the door to fill in uncompleted censuses.
Since the name stuck, the name was used when registering births / marriages etc, but then spelt Syre, this has later evolved to Syers.
As they came from Gypsy background, the family could not read / write, so the spelling of the name was left to the registrar of the day.
As a footnote, there has always been a George Henry in the family, handed out from generation to generation...in fact, George Henry Syers was Warrington Mayor in 1990.
Most of this is word of mouth, passed through the years, so may not be 100%, but it is as the family understands it.