| Welcome to the "Barnett Family Research Site" For many years, genealogical research has been performed on both of these established families. And many, many files documents and pictures have been collected and scattered across the Internet. This is an atempt to bring them together. In one place, for the future generations The former town of Barnet, England, was located some fifteen miles north of old London and dates back to the 12th century. In 1965 it, along with several other towns and communities, became one of thirty-two boroughs of Greater London Shortly following the Norman Conquest, a large rural area around several unnamed villages was extensively cleared of forests preparing for the cultivation of hay grasses and grain, namely barley. The area rapidly became a heavy producer of barley which was the primary ingredient of bread, ale and livestock feed. It is not certain as to the exact date that the Barnet name was applied to the villages that soon developed. Actually, there were several early villages within this rural area whose name incorporated the word "Barnet", East Barnet and Chipping Barnet are examples. Chipping is an Old English word for "market place"; thus Chipping Barnet translates into "barley market". The Chipping Barnet Church dates back to 1250 and is still in use. The word "barnet" breaks down into two parts, "barn" and the suffix "et". "Barn" derives from the Anglo-Saxon "berern" which, in turn, is derived from "bere", the OE word for "barley". The last two letters "rn" in "berern" are derived from the OE "aern" which translates into something like "close place" or "place". Thus, "barn" translates as "barley place" or the name of a place to store barley. In order to differentiate between the large rather loosely built barns for the storage of bulky hay, etc., and the smaller tightly built storage units for the threshed barley, the newly fashionable French prefix "et" was added, giving what was then spelled "barn'et". "Et", "ett", "ette" and rarely "it", are all diminutive suffixes of French origin which are frequently found in both Middle and Modern English but not in OE. All mean something akin to "small". "Ett" is a later form than "et", in French both are masculine; add the "e" and the masculine become feminine. When the name is spelled "Barnette", it is assumed that there is a dominant female somewhere upstream! Definitively, a barnet became the name of a store-house for threshed barley. The sturdy barnets were usually constructed within the village itself, largely for security reasons, as grain was valuable not only as a food staple, but as a unit of barter and trade as well. So, it was natural for these new villages to become known by the name Barnet. Barnet was probably a place name for perhaps two centuries before it was adopted as a surname by people. Students of the question as to when the adoption of family names became prevalent in England appear to favor the late 1400s. Following this period, the later spelling, Barnett as a family name, appears to have become popular. Evidence suggests that the area of Barnet, England formed the major origin of the Barnett family name. The proximity to populous London lends credence to larger numbers. There were, of course, other barnets and Barnets. The Irish Barnetts were the next most populous group. The word "were" is used, since most all of them seem to have ended up in America. In at least one document that can be recalled, they claimed to be older in name than the English Barnetts. The genesis of the Irish Barnett name might differ from the English one, however, there is most probably a migratory mixing of the two, and being as though their village names do not reflect an earlier date than the english records, for now, and the sake of argument, we will leave it at an English origin and migrating to Ireland and Scotland. This is a non-profit, open-sharing site Unless otherwise stated, all info is free to be used by any and all visitors. If you have any additional info you would like to have added; please visit our contact us page for email addresses. More to come .................. Updated Daily |
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| Barnett Clan an open group on |
