The Aryans

Some early historians believe that the genealogy of the white Germanic race evolved with the Aryan race of people who lived in the once warm and fertile farm lands of southern Russia. Very little is known about them until they entered the Indian continent and it is also believed that a large Meteor hit the earth knocking it onto its present axis changing the Poles and slowing down the earth to its present rotation. With the frozen and unworkable ground in Russia many of the tribe sort new lands. Some crossed over the Frozen Bering Sea north of the Aleutian Islands into the Americas. ( Recently in July 1996 on the banks of the Columbia River in the USA a doctor discovered a Skull that could be European, he has named it "Kennewick Man" its over 9000 years old.) Other Aryans moved across Russia and in to other parts of Europe and were now called Celts.

The Indo-Celts

Other Aryan Celts who migrated from Russia, infiltrated into central Asia by way of the Indus Valley around 1700 to 2500 BC, and occupied the lands in Pakistan, Iran, and northern India, also northern Afghanistan, they were then called the Indo-Celts, now called the Indo-Europeans, they brought with them their Indo-religion, that had three casts, the Holy men: Brahmans, the Kshatriya: Fighting men, and the Vaishya: Farmers and Merchants. After subduing the people who were black and of these areas the Indo-Celts at first would not let any black person near them or allow them into the Indo-religion but after a long time they were allowed to intermarry and they became the forth sect called the Untouchables, from this union came the Brown eyes, hair,and skin race people of today.

After many years a large group of them moved back through Iran crossing the black sea and then split into two large groups one group eventually setting in northern Italy and later mixing with the Etruscans who had come from Etruria,(now called Turkey) from this union emerged the Romans . The other group moved to the coastline and crossed over the ice packs to the Americas some say they were the first native americans later to be called the Red Indians.

The Brythons or Britons

Later another large group of Celts moved from West Asia, and split into three groups, one group moved into Gotebord in Sweden, and the next moved into the basin of the Vistula in Europe and some into northern Spain. From this Indo group emerged a tribe called the Brythons or Britons, who also crossed the North sea and settled with their European Celts, and called the land Briton and later to be called Britain. Their Celtic languages is spoken by some of the Irish, Welsh, Cornish, and Scots, and in its form comes from a branch of the Indo-European language.

Indo-Celts to Goths.

From the Gotebord and Vistula Celts emerged the Goths. According to the Gothic historian Jordanes who wrote " By the middle of the 6th century the Goths originated into southern Scandinavia and crossed in three ships with their king Berig and occupied the southern shore line of the Baltic sea. The Roman historian Tacitus stated " that the Goths at this time were distinguished by their round shields, and short swords". Later they migrated southwards from the Vistula region under their king Filimer, and occupied the coastline near the Black sea.

The Germanic Tribes

The Franks and the Alemanni lived in Gaul. The Sarmatians and Goths lived by the Danube. The Goths now split in the 4th century AD, into two groups the Ostrogoths moved to the East and the Ukraine, and the new Visigoths of the West, and were living by the Danube. With the help of the Huns they defeated the Romans and established their kingdoms in Gaul and Spain. From them emerged the Germans, Dutch, Flemish, Franks, Danes and Scandinavians and the German Swiss. The Germans then split into the Saxons,Angles and Jutes.

Danes, Jutes, Engles or Angles, and Saxons

The Denmark peninsula was to become homelands of the Danish Vikings and by 420AD they were pushing the Jutes out of Jutland and the old Saxons from Schleswig and also the Angles from Holstein. The Roman historian Ptolemy mentions them as Angles : and were to the North of the Saxons lands (that is now part of Germany. ) Another Roman historian called Tacitus named these people and their lands by their own name of Engles and there land Englesland who he says are among the seven Germanic tribes that lay beyond the langobari (north of the river Elbe, and were there at the end of the first century AD.
Two Anglean Brothers called Hengist and Horsa with a small mercenary army came to the assistance of the British who were under constant attacks from the Picks and Scots, and on seeing how the British were stricken with the plague and so lacking in vigour, sent word home for all of their nation to come and take this land, and so the migration of our ancestors began from the 5th century.

Extracts From The Saxon Chronicle

Then came the men from three powers of Germany the old Saxons,the Angles and Jutes. From the Jutes descended the men of Kent the Wightwarians (that is the tribe that now dwell in the Isle of Wight and Wessex. From the old Saxons came the people of Essex and Sussex and Wessex. From Anglia the largest of the four tribes came the East Angles,the Middle Angles and the Mersians, and all of those north of the Humber. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengest and Horsa, the sons of Woden. From this Woden arose all our royal kindred, and that of the South-Humbrians also. AD 465 This year Hengest and Esc fought with the Welsh,near Wippdfleet;and slew twelve leaders,all Welsh. AD 477 This year came Ella to Britain in three ships;landing at a place called Cymenshore. There they slew many of the Welsh and drove them into the wood called Andred's Ley.

End of Extracts

The largest of the Anglo kingdoms was Northumbria it stretched from the Firth of Forth to the Humber, including Deire, that became modern Yorkshire,and Bernica Northumberland and Durham ,also the southeastern part of Scotland, and a large part of northwestern England before the Danish invasion.
Part of the Britons retained possession of Strathclyde and Cumbria to the southern borders of Lancashire, with the ridge of mountains separating them from Northumbria. The Lancashire town of Bury was one of the earlier Anglo-Saxon fortified frontier areas. Over the years the Celts were pushed back into the lowlands of Scotland and Wales. Many of the new Anglo-Saxon arears still have family members of Wood.

Click:Anglo-Saxon History

Anglo-Saxon and Viking Place-names

Place names can tell you where our early families built their homes and farms, some have developed into Towns and Villages, and farmlands into districts or suburbs and areas. All Towns and Villages ending in Ley were the early settlements of the most prominent, or leading family. Examples :Woodley and Alwoodley. The Farmlands of Woodfield and Woodham,and the smaller amount of Villages ending with thorp, thorpe and by :Woodthorp near York, and Whitby had the redheaded Vikings.

No one knows how many families with the old spelling of Wode came to Britain with the Anglo-Saxon invasion but you can see on a map that the two men that were killed at the battle of Hastings in 1066, held their farms, Alviva la Wode held a great manor and farmlands at Fawley in Buckingamshire near to the present Fawley Court,this manor was used up to 1644 and was then pulled down for the building of Fawley Court. Alviva's son Aelfgifa la Wode held a great manor and a larger farm at long Crendon were the new Norman Earl Walter Giffard's family built a Castle. This Wode family seat was at Woodley near Twyford, and the first farm was at Woodham near Weybridge.

The Gothic-Danish-Vikings and Norman's

With the Western Germanic Franks who had gradually conquered most of Gaul by the 4th century, came under a torrent of prolonged Viking raids. The Frankish King Charles the simple, thought he would put an end to this situation and invited the Scandinavian-Vikings under the leadership of Rolo who had settled in Scotland, to come and settle in the land and act as a buffer zone against incursions into his kingdom, at first the Vikings called their land the Norsemans Lands later to be called Normandy and after they settled in, they pillaged their neighbours and when they were larger in numbers made war on other countries, southern Italy and Sicily were often attacked by them.

The Norman Invasion.& The family of Wode.

In 1066 Duke William with the help of a mercenary army made up of Norman's, Celts and French, invaded England killing King Harold II of England and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwin this battle was the most decisive ever fought for our motherland in that we lost the last true king of the English the last Anglo-Saxon king.
After the Battle of Hastings, the new illegitimate King William of Normandy, made a decree that all men living or dead and who had fought with King Harold II, shall forfeit their lands, and the families were dispossessed or Hanged and from this time only a hand full of the English retained their titles and lands.

As a point of interest for our family members in Scotland,there is no evidence that a Norman Lord called de Vosco or an Italian called de Bosco came with the Norman invasion of 1066, and also no Bosco Clan.

The Taking of The Wode Farmlands by the Norman Lord Walter Giffard.

The lands at Fawley in the time of King Edward the Confessor were held by Earl Tosty or Tosti, who was the rebellious brother of King Harold II, Earl Tosty was killed at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066.

After the Norman conquest the manors of Fawley and Crendon were held by Lord Giffard, who passed the land at Fawley to his steward Herbrand de Sackville, where "Alviva la Wode" had held his manor and farm.

In a book about the De Sackville family written by J.H.Round, he cited a document held by the British Library, and written in old Norman Latin, records a claim to certain liberties on the part of Bartholomew de Sackville ( the "B" is missing from his name) who held of the marshals, Earls of Pembroke, in the days of Henry III (b:1206 r:1216-1272 ) held a Knights fee at Fawley, in Buckinghamshire,and from the Book History Of Buckinghamshire About 1234 Bartholomew de Sackville claimed the right to view of frankpledge in Fawley on the grounds that it was included with all liberties in Earl Giffards grant to his ancestor Herbrand and exercised by him and his successor, William de Sackville.

At this time there was an abandoned Nunnery at Fawley, and the King was making this claim upon this land and the de Sackville family had to prove their legal right, using this parchment. Fawley was held by the de Sackville family up to 1455 then passed in marriage of Margery de Sackville, to Thomas Rokes or Rooks. The Parchment beginning with the words " Ostendit Domino sue Dominos B de Saukeville and tells the tale of his claim after writing about were he came from near Dieppe Thus: Domesday clearly said that the land at ( Fall ) meaning Fawley in Buckinghamshire was obtained by Sir Walter Giffard, who held the lands and farms of the Anglo Saxon "Alviva la Wode" in Buckinghamshire, Walters chief seat at Long Crendon and another Manor of the son of Alviva; The statement reads that Walter received the lands of " Aelfgifa the Crazy la Wode. In an other statement it reads that: Herbrand de Sackville selected the Manor of Fawley for its beauty, in preference to the larger and more valuable one at Crendon. ) Also read the book "A History Of Buckinghamshire, pages 39-40.

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Other information.

Please note in books on Surnames it states: Wood living in or near a wood, and Wood Wild and Frenzied I have never found any firm evidence to substantiate the first meaning : that we lived in or near a wood, unlike other surnames of Bywood, Underwood, Redwood and many more, I firmly believe our name derives from a trade-name, and stands apart from all others and by its self. The second definition: Wild and Frenzied, although the meaning is lost, I think that it came from the fight put up by Aelfgifa la Wode at the battle of Senlac Hill at the town of Battle in 1066. Many of the old Wood coats of Arms depict naked ,wild, warriors on their shields and they may have known the true definition of this saying.

Norman Rule.

After the Norman conquest, England lost all of its kings and kingdoms, Duke William of Normandy took the Throne and made himself sole ruler, he divided up the kingdom keeping 1/5 for himself and the rest he gave to his robbing followers, and the Norman church. He introduced feudalism. There was just over one and quarter million people in England at this time, and no English persons could leave their place of birth without the written approval of the ruling Baron.
The Norman's were hated by the English for over Three hundred years, they launched a campaign of genocide on the northern population of Yorkshire slaughtering the people and farm animals they could find. The crops were torched, the land was made waste for a long time. However some did survived in the scrublands that were to be called Lancashire. A large part of this land had been held by the rebellious Earl Tosty the brother of the late King Harold II.

In 1349 came the Black Death this was also called the Great Plague it killed about one million out of a population of 4.5 million, and as the plague intensified society started to crumble with the sudden shortage of labour, the Baron Lords harvests went un-gathered , and his livestock untended. This situation was overcome by letting the English farm worker have some of the land so he could grow his own crops, in exchange for his labour to the Lord. The next two plagues, of 1625 and 1665 made thousands of people leave their Villages and Towns, and seek isolation in woodlands and faraway places from their abode. With less labour the farmer could buy more land and eventually purchased all the Lords lands and Manor house, they were called the Yeomen farmers, :as a point of interest the Baron of Manchester sold his Manor and purchased lands in the new British colonies of America his name was Lord Delaware the river and the local Indians bear his name .
Robert Wood of Monk Bretton in Yorkshire was a Yeoman farmer and was born About 1589 Died 1676 his successor is Charles Edward Peter Neilwood 4th earl of Halifax B-1944-.Their old manor hall and church St Wilfrid is at Heckleton in Yorkshire also see Bolling Hall Bradford.

Other Notable Wood's. Sir John Wood was under treasurer and speaker in the Parliament of King Edward IV and Treasurer [17 May 1483-84 ] of England under King Richard III. Sir B Wood M.P of Conyngham Hall at Knaresborough in Yorkshire. The Reverent Sir B Wood of Holling Hall Ripon, lays at rest in Ripon Cathedral. In 1838 The former Lord Mayor of London and Hop Merchant obtained his title as Baronet: Lord Matthew Wood. Sir John Stuart Page Wood{ Motto "Defend"). Sir John Arthur Haigh Wood{Motto "Every Good Thing Is The Gift Of God"). Sir Basil Samuel Hill Hill Wood{ Motto "Every Good Thing Is The Gift Of God) Field Marshal Evelyn Wood F.M. of Essex. ( Read his Book" From Midshipman to Field Marshal."1906) and The Zulu War. Evelyn commanded the 90th Light Infantry. Scotland is made up of four main Celtic groups: The Picks, Scots, Britons,Welsh, and three Germanic groups: The Danes, and Angles,and a small part of Norman's. With the loss of the Angle provinces in the border areas of Scotland after 1066, you can still find people with the same English surnames, and the first recorded person with the name of William Wood and written in Roman Latin and was Williemus de Bosco, who was Chancellor to the Scottish King William in 1168, and mentioned in charters of King Alexander II in the book of the Town of Inverness in 1214. It has been assumed by Sir Walter Scot and other historians that this man was a son of a Norman Knight and from him came the family of Wood. ( I totally refute this claim, as at this time all legal Scottish court documents would have been written in old Roman Latin, and if this person was a Norman, he would have had his name spelled in the Norman way as Vosco, and not Bosco, as this is the Roman Latin name of Wood.

Please remember low born and commoners were seldom recorded until after 1500.) One of note was Andrew Wood born at Leith in Scotland about 1444, he was knighted by James III for his trading with France,and Holland. His genius for naval warfare with the English and French, brought his talents to the notice of the king James 1V. After winning two sea battles in 1480 against the English he was made a free Baron, with lands at the Kirkton of Largo in Fifeshire he was also made a chief of clan McDonald for his help in the king's expedition of land and sea were Donald Dubh of the Isles was captured and kept in prison for forty years. Andrew's ruined castle can be found in Upper Largo.

( Burke's Armory reads" Azure an oak tree growing out of a mound in base or between two ships under sail.The Wood family of Largo and then Ottershaw Park in Surrey were the blood descendants of the old amiral.

Biblical Trade-names

Biblical trade-names. Long before surnames were used people used trade-names to be identified ,you will know that Joseph of Bethlehem, was a carpenter, and so was his father Jacob, but did you know that his father was called Matthan, he was an importer and seller of Wood, his trade sign was an Oak Tree. He was the Great-grandfather of Jesus Christ, later the trade names become surnames Sign-names were used, in this country for over two thousand years, and started to disappear in England when national education was introduced in about 1860.

Wood In The New World

The Colony at Roanoke Island. : Richard Greenville with a party of about one hundred men landed on the Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1584, three years later they were joined by a party organised by Walter Raleigh, and with the attempted invasion of Briton by the Spanish Armada, it was several years before another supply ship could be sent to the new colony. This proved to be a fruitless mission when they landed they found no trace of the new settlers .

Click:Colonists List

The First Virginia Charter for the American Colony was made on the 10 April 1606, it was made up of gentlemen, merchants and other adventurers of the city of London, who were to make up the first Colony, this would be a more permanent foothold in the new world, some 115 men arrived to build a fortified site on the swampy banks of the James River, but it was not long before they were dying from dysentery and malaria and from Indian attackers. The gentlemen would not plant their own crops, and so without food in the first winter over 103 died of famine leaving only 38 members.
Click:Virginia Charter

Click Pocahontas story and grave in the UK

The Second Colony came from the cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth and other places in England. The former Governor John White organised a fleet of ships called after his name The White Fleet to transport four-hundred men and women to the new world, with the blessing of the London Company, made up with a body of fighting men and tradesmen. In 1609 they arrived in Jamestown, they came at a time known as The Starving Time, with little or no food, some men turned to cannibalism of family members, and by the summer of 1610, only sixty members of the settlement were alive. Within the White Fleet were two settlers, Captain Thomas Wood and a farmer called Thomas Wood with his family. On the 9th of November 1620 came the 101 men and women from Plymouth in England,it took 67 days to reach the new colony they were called the Pilgrim Fathers . One member of the Wood family travelled from the Jamestown colony to help them, and showed them how to fertilize the land with fish, but the pilgrim fathers say it was an English speaking Indian with farming knowledge. In 1640 an attempt to expand the fur trade was made, with a number of frontiersmen pushing westwards and Abraham Wood { most probably the descendant of Thomas the farmer of Jamestown } was noted for his exploration into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. To day about eighty percent of the present Virginia's people are of European descent, the eastern part was first settled by English who came from around London and the southern and midland counties of England. The Welsh came during the 1700s and the French,Scots,Irish,and German,moved from Pennsylvania into the Shenandoah valley.

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