John
Sorry if I am tending to monopolise your site with all these romantic ideas. You have gathered my technique by now. I have read and thought a great deal about the family origins. I am only one person and do not have time to be a truly erudite scholar.
What I am trying to do is toss up ideas with some reasoning to stimulate thought amongst those interested in the family generally. We are all trying to find our roots and our family connections but the task must eventually defy even the most assiduous researcher.
It is easy to repeat stories as fact and thereby create myths - our family does not seem to be short on the wild stories which you have bravely debunked to your credit.
I don't want to start another series of myths and I am trying to stimulate debate amongst those who have researched the origins of the family and its name to try and get some consensus and get as close to the truth as we can get.
I am more than happy for anyone to prove me wrong and I will be very happy to accept their proofs and move on from there.
Along the way we will probably add to our respective family trees as the patterns of migration and descent are fleshed out.
Thanks for the opportunity to get on my soap box.
Tom C