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Holy Trinity Church, Milton Regis, Kent
This page is just a beginning. My hope is to include excerpts or full transcriptions from the work of prominent Norwood family genealogists, such as John Cheesman Norwood, Charles Andrew Norwood, G. Marion Norwood Callam, and James G. Dempsey, among others. Additionally, I would like to provide references to primary sources and the works of historians of the early periods in English history. As we seek our ancestry beyond the shores of America or Australia or Ireland, we are led to England, where we find many separate, yet in most cases related Norwood families, stretching from the English Channel in the east to the Welsh border in the west. The generations of Norwoods who remained in England have spread to other regions of England, and we know of Norwoods far to the North in the county of Yorkshire today. In some instances, Norwood families of the "diaspora" have a documented descent from the earliest Norwoods in England, and in other instances, emigrant ancestors seem to wash up on our shores like castaways , past connections buried in the oceans they have bravely crossed.
These pages promote no view about the origins of the Norwoods. They are rather a kind of exploration of what we know, or what we think we know, in an effort to discover what we don't yet know. I hope that examining evidence, challenging the assumptions and analyses of previous family historians and genealogists, and examining sources from outside the genealogical community, we will become clearer about what is possible, what is probable, and what is neither, with regard to our ancient lineage.
One of our favorite beliefs, first (to my knowledge) believed and promoted by John Cheesman Norwood and accepted and promoted by G. Marion Norwood Callam, is that we are descendants of Earl Harold Godwinson, King Harold II of England, who was defeated at Senlac Hill by William the Conquerer, Duke of Normandy, King William I. In The Norwoods III, A Chronological History, G. Marion Norwood Callam (GMNC) writes a rather convincing account with a fairly thorough analysis of the evidence based on her discovery of the work of John Cheesman Norwood. As a starting point for this new section of The Norwood Family Page, I would like to examine chapters II - V of the The Norwoods III, using a new work by Ian W. Walker, Harold, The Last Anglo-Saxon King, for comparison or contrast. One immediate difference between the two works is the tone of the discussion of historical records and events. I would call Callam's work romantic and personal, more free in its analysis, interpreting the historical record almost to force it to fit a preconceived notion of the truth, while Walker's is factual and impersonal, allowing analysis to go only so far as the historical record very clearly allows. I hope this balance between the two works will help establish a middle approach to a new analysis of what we can really know about Harold's descendants and the relationship of the Norwood family to Harold's.
It is the possibility of this link between the last Anglo-Saxon king and the first Norwoods on the Isle of Sheppey that sparked GMNC's long career of genealogical research, which resulted in the production of three books on the Norwoods. Mrs. Callam is now in her nineties, and will not be with us for many more years, and I think we all owe her a great debt of gratitude as one who not only loved her own heritage and enjoyed her work in tracing and proving it, but who loved and reached out to those she considered her cousins, her family by virtue of a shared connection with the name NORWOOD. Because she loved her cousins, she shared; and The Norwoods, I, II, & III are the evidence of this sharing, the visible fruit of her many years of labor on our family history. But these three books are not the only evidence--Mrs. Callam also established relationships with us; she corresponded with us over the years in letters as full of affection as they were of information. When we read her last book, we may wish that she had cared more for recording dates and locations, for the documentation of sources in every line, or that she had insisted on a comprehensive index for The Norwoods III, but it seems to me that she cared mostly for people and their stories, and yes, for interesting and prestigious connections too. Mrs. Callam's sharing through publications and relationships has produced more than the dissemination of information and the establishment of worldwide connections, however. It has also produced genealogists. I became interested in genealogy because of Mrs. Callam's first two books and the genealogical maps of Kent she prepared with her husband. My own imagination about my connection with history, about ancestors long gone and long forgotten, was sparked by the sharing of G. Marion Norwood Callam, and I am grateful. She deserves a far better tribute than this poor attempt, but I hope this serves nonetheless as a fitting introduction to our re-exploration of ground Mrs. Callam has already laid claim to through her own discovery and exploration, which began many years ago now, in 1954.
Let's read what contemporaries of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors wrote about their times, or enjoy their literature, or hear how they sounded:
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
A chronicle of the Anglo-Saxon period in England from Hengist and Horsa and the first arrivals c. 449 in Kent to the defeat of Harold II in 1066.
Old English Poetry Read Aloud
One of several opportunities on line to hear Old English spoken. This is what Jordan and Cecily, Sir Stephen, and Sir Roger probably sounded like. When you have downloaded the Real Player and the fonts, go to the poem you would like to hear and click on its decorative first letter.
The Old English Pages
Texts and manuscripts from the Old English Period (c400-1150)
Note: There is a distinction between the terms Anglo-Saxon and Old English. The former refers to the grouping of German tribes that invaded and settled in England in the 5th century A.D., including the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. The latter, Old English, refers to the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons until about 1150 A.D., when through intensive contact with the official, dominant French language for a period of about one hundred years (during which English went "underground"), English underwent many changes in grammar and vocabulary, resulting in what is called Middle English, the language of Geoffrey Chaucer. By Shakespeare's time, in the 16th century, a great change in the pronunciation of English vowels called the Great English Vowel Shift had taken place, and Modern English had come into being, which we all enjoy still on the eve of the 21st century. It is the vowel shift, along with the loss of some consonant sounds as in thought, knee, and others, that is largely responsible for our "faulty" spelling system today.
I'd like this page to be interactive. If you have confirming or contradictory responses or questions or information to add, please identify yourself and write back in the box provided below. Let's have a dialogue--exchange ideas about further research and enjoy exploring our history and genealogy together.
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William Norwood of Virginia, 1648
Capt. John Norwood of Maryland, 1650
Francis Norwood of Massachusetts, 1657
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