FOR THE FEMALES IN OUR FAMILY I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO REMIND YOU THAT YOUR NAME WILL APPEAR UNDER YOUR
MAIDEN NAME AND NOT YOUR MARRIED NAME.
WHEN I STARTED TO PUT TOGETHER A FAMILY TREE I STARTED WITH WHAT I KNEW AND BEGAN WORKING BACKWARDS.
LITTLE DID I KNOW THAT SEARCHING FAMILY HISTORY WOULD GIVE ME LAUGHTER, REAL SADNESS AND MOST OF
ALL SHOCK AT WHAT I FOUND. WORKING DOWN ONE BRANCH I SOON JOINED ANOTHER BRANCH THIS WENT BACK TO THE MAIN BRANCH FROM THE ROOT. THE SPLITTING OF THE BRANCHES CAME WITH TWO BROTHERS GOING ALONG THEIR OWN STEMS. THIS WAS THE FIRST SHOCK TO FIND THAT FROM THE SAME ROOT THERE WERE FAMILIES LIVING TOTALLY DIFFERENT LIVES. ONE BRANCH SHOWED WEALTHY WELL KNOWN PRIVILEGED SIMEON LANDOWNERS WITH MANSIONS AND TITLES. WHILE THE OTHER SHOWED THE POORER WORKING FAMILY MEMBERS WHO HAD WALKED MILES DURING THE GREAT RECESSION SEEKING WORK. ALL COMING FROM THE SAME ROOT I BEGAN TO WONDER HOW THIS CAN HAPPEN AND SOON DISCOVERED IT WAS ALL DOWN TO MARRIAGE. IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE POORER BRANCH KNEW LITTLE OF THEIR WEALTHY RELATIONS AND IT WAS THE SAME THE OTHER WAY ROUND. BUT AS THE YEARS SLID BY THINGS BEGAN TO CHANGE WITH THE LANDOWNERS HAVING TO GIVE UP THEIR LAND WHILE THE POORER STARTED TO BETTER THEM SELF. IT WAS SOON TO BE THAT BOTH BRANCHES BE CAME EQUALISED. WHAT EVERY BRANCH YOU FOLLOW YOU WILL FEEL PROUD OF OUR NAME, AND BE THANKFUL, THAT WE ALL CAME FROM GOOD STOCK AND ARE ALL SIMEONS FROM THE SAME ROOT AND WE SHOULD ALL SHARE OUR GOOD FORTUNE WITH ONE ANOTHER
Like most beginners, when I first started to research my family tree I believed that the spelling of surnames was important - that there were a right way and a wrong way (sometimes many wrong ways!)I knew, of course, that many people were illiterate - even in 1851 only 55% of women could read and write, compared to 70% of men - but I somehow assumed that the vicars who recorded baptisms, being better educated, would get the spellings right. Some hope! The very fact that the clergy was well-educated meant that they were often unfamiliar with the surnames and dialects of the parishes where they ministered. For example, in Wiltshire, where our paternal line originates, our surname would have been recorded as "Symeon" - and that's how it is most often recorded prior to 1700. Remember, I'm not talking about transcription errors these are the different spellings in the handwritten registers
As if surnames weren't enough of a challenge, researchers also have to cope with forenames that appear out of nowhere, disappear without a trace, change order or morph into something completely different.
In the late 19th century, it was becoming increasingly common for the children of ordinary people to have a middle name, and around this time you'll often find that people who don't have a middle name on their birth certificate invented a middle name for themselves. Sometimes people swapped the order of their forenames, sometimes they dropped one that they didn't like, and sometimes they exchanged one that they didn't like for one that they did.So, whilst middle names can sometimes help
we identify the right entries, they can also be a hindrance!
You will know that for many years I have been researching the Simeon Family history and have put all my findings on this website that many of you have commented on and hopefully enjoy. I have, after seeing some family trees and the incorrect information on them, made sure that every detail on "our" tree is correct and provable. I have had some failures in my research one being the Huddersfield and Bolton Simeons who are from the branch that settled in Yorkshire in the Middle Ages.
With the names I have found, their Christian names are so matched to the Liverpool families that I believe this is a branch of our family, but the vital link is missing so I am unable to prove it. In the 17-18 hundreds, hundreds of records were lost in a fire and it would seem that included the information that I required to confirm the link. I firmly believe that Rev Richard Simeon (born 1646) had more than one son and the Yorkshire stem is from one or more of them..... but like I said it's unproven. There are also Simeons in Devon, and again I cannot link the families.
I NOW FEEL THAT I HAVE COME TO THE END OF A REMARKABLE JOURNEY. IT AS BECOMING HARDER TO ADD TO WHAT IS NOW A LARGE FAMILY TREE. THE SIMEON FAMILY TREE WILL NEVER BE COMPLETED....THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE TO ADD
I HAVE RESEARCHED AND FOUND OUR FAMILY MEMBERS THAT NOW GO BACK TO 1155 WITH THE HELP OF THE MANY FAMILY MEMBERS THAT HAVE SUPPLIED PHOTOS, STORIES, AND INFORMATION. THEY COME NOT ONLY FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM BUT FROM CANADA, THE USA, NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA. I WOULD LIKE TO PASS ON MY SINCERE THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED. I WOULD LIKE TO SINGLE OUT AND SAY A BIG "THANK YOU" TO PAM SIMEON, WARREN SIMEON'S WIFE, WHO WORKED SO HARD TO LINK OUR UK FAMILIES WITH OUR AUSTRALIAN COUSINS. ALSO FOR OBTAINING A COPY OF THE BOOK THE SIMEON SAGA, SAINTS & SINNERS BY JUNE ROUGHLEY (NEE SIMEON) FOR ME. WITHOUT HER HELP THIS TREE WOULD HAVE A LOT fewer DETAILS.
UNKNOWN TO ME JUNE ROUGHLEY WAS RESEARCHING HER BRANCH OF THE TREE WHILE I WAS ON ANOTHER DOING THE SAME. WHEN I RECEIVED THE BOOK I CHECKED WHAT I HAD LOGGED AGAINST JUNES AND I AM DELIGHTED TO SAY THAT I HAD NEAR 90% OF WHAT SHE HAD. I HAVE ADDED A LOT OF JUNES STORIES TO OUR TREE WHICH MAKES INTERESTING READING
SOME INTERESTING FACTS:- THE SIMEON AND BARRINGTON FAMILIES INTERMARRIED AND WERE MOSTLY LOCATED
ON
THE ISLE OF WIGHT. ENGLAND. THE COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE FAMILIES ARE WORTH RECORDING HERE. THE BARRINGTONS WERE ANGLO-SAXONS. THEY RESISTED THE CONQUEROR AND LIVED IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE THEN ESSEX
AND THEN SWAINSTON.
THE SIMEONS WERE NORMANS AND CAME OVER WITH THE CONQUEROR. OXFORDSHIRE WAS THEIR COUNTY (PYRTON
BRITWELL ETC). WITHIN 50 YEARS OF THE CONQUEST THEY WERE MENTIONED IN THE 1ST PARLIAMENT IN 1295.
THE SIMEONS WERE ROYALIST.
THE BARRINGTON WERE ALSO PARLIAMENTARIANS BUT SIR JOHN BARRINGTON WOULD NEVER ATTEND THE COURT THAT
TRIED KING CHARLES I AND REFUSED TO SIGN THE WARRANT OF HIS EXECUTION. THE BARRINGTONS WERE PROTESTANT, BUT THE SIMEONS WERE CATHOLICS AND LATER ON PROTESTANTS AND CATHOLICS IN DIFFERENT BRANCHES
CONCLUSIONS
THIS THEN IS THE SAGA OF THE SIMEON FAMILY, STRETCHING BACK OVER 850 YEARS OF THEIR RECORDED HISTORY
INTO ALL INHABITED CONTINENTS OF THE GLOBE.
SAINTS & SINNERS?--WELL, WE ARE ALL SINNERS, BUT THERE IS NO RECORD OF ANY BEARING THE NAME OF SIMEON
BEING CHARGED WITH AN INDICTABLE OFFENCE, EXCEPT HENRY IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY WHERE "HE WAS RETIRED FOR THE DEATH OF A MAN. WE DO NOT KNOW THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT KING HENRY III INTERCEDED FOR HIM AND OBTAINED HIS PARDON. THERE ARE A FEW OTHERS WHO, PERHAPS DID NOT LIVE UP TO THE HIGH
STANDARDS EXPECTED OF THEM, BUT WHO ARE WE TO JUDGE?
AS FOR SAINTS THIS TREE IS ABOUND WITH SAMPLES OF THOSE WHOSE LIVES REFLECT DEEDS OF DEDICATION TO
THE HIGHEST PRINCIPALS, -WHO SERVED THEIR GOD,KING AND COUNTRY IN WAR AND PEACE WITH DISTINCTION.
MANY OF OUR FOREBEARS HAVE LEFT NO TRACE, AND ARE LOST TO US, BUT IT IS AMAZING HOW MUCH HAS SURVIVED OF THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO WENT BEFORE US.
WE DO NOT ALWAYS KNOW THE OCCUPATIONS OR SERVICE RECORDS OF ALL THOSE WHO APPEAR ON THIS WEBSITE,
BUT OF THOSE WE DO KNOW, SOME INTERESTING STATISTICS EMERGE. THERE WERE TWENTY MEN OF THE CLOTH,
INCLUDING HUSBANDS OF DAUGHTERS WHO MARRIED CLERGY. ANOTHER FOUR WOMEN WERE NUNS. THE MOST FAMOUS
CLERGYMAN WAS REV. CHARLES SIMEON, A MOST SAINTLY GENTLEMAN, WHILE SEVERAL OTHERS WERE DEANS, BISHOPS ETC. OVER THIRTY WERE IN MILITARY SERVICE, OFTEN REACHING HIGH POSITIONS OF LEADERSHIP AND
SERVING WITH GREAT DISTINCTION- WHILE SURGEON FERDINAND SIMEON Le QUESNE AWARDED THE VICTORIA CROSS
WHILE IN THE NAVY.
WE HAVE A VICE ADMIRAL, A REAR ADMIRAL, COMMANDERS, LIEUT. COMMANDERS AND OTHERS, WHILE IN BOTH WORLD WARS, OUR FAMILIES WERE IN THE ARMY, NAVY AND AIR FORCE. COUNTLESS SIMEON WOMEN MARRIED MEN
WHO SERVED IN THE SERVICES THROUGHOUT HISTORY. THERE IS THE PATRIOTIC FAMILY OF SIX SIMEON BOTHERS,
ALL SERVING IN THE FORCES IN WORLD WARII, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. AND THERE ARE THE SIMEONS THAT WERE
KILLED FIGHTING FOR PEACE FOR US. A PROUD RECORD.
It is interesting to know that the "Surname Profiler" list New Zealand with the most surname "Simeon" they have a 66.31 frequency per million followed by France with 51.48 Paris Ile-De-France the top city followed by Strasbourg Alsace France and then Glascow Scotland.
The top regions being all in New Zealand the North District with 1187.89 F.P.M followed by the Taupo District with 766.84 and the Kaikoura with 699.86. Switzerland is 26.3F.P.M. followed by Australia with 13.98 F.P.M.
SIMEON NAME MEANING AND HISTORY
French, Spanish (Simeón), and English: from the personal name Simeon, a variant of Simon. There are many Parish Records with Symeon recorded. This was chosen in honor of any of many
saints so named, venerated especially in
the Eastern Church, including Simeon Theodochos, who recognized the infant Christ as the Messiah during the presentation in the temple, and St. Simeon Stylites, an ascetic 5th-century Syrian monk who lived for 40 years on top of a pillar. It is also found as a Greek surname, a reduced form of patronymics such as Simeonides, Simeonakis, or Simeonoglou.
MY THANKS, FOR YOU INTEREST. HOPE YOU GET GREAT ENJOYMENT FROM YOUR FAMILY THAT PERHAPS ....LIKE
ME,
YOU NEVER KNEW EXISTED.
GEORGE
