Brick Wall!!!

[Juliefay]

Hi everyone, I am another newbee, what a superb site, I am sure I will have loads of fun when I get the hang of it!!! I have been trying to trace my late husbands roots, he was raised in Dundalk by foster parents,born in 1935 and unfortunately died aged 46years in 1981,his birth was not registered, he was himself always sad he never Knew his roots, so I kind of feel its my duty, so am on a mission!!! Trouble is I keep coming up against a brick wall, his name was Lynn Dello, as you can see that must have stood out in Ireland. Can anyone offer any help at all please?

[darian]

Intriguing name. Did you consider using the services of the local radio station for the are? LMFM has a very good listenership and you might get a response to a letter read out. Just a long shot.  I know a case of a fostered child whose name was deliberately changed so he couldn't be traced. Awful! Keep trying.gabby21

[Juliefay]

Hi Gabby21,
                       That is a very good idea, thankyou for that, I will give it some serious thought, I have been researching now some five/six years and am not getting anywhere fast!!!!!
                                          All The Best Juliefay.

[frecklesjack]

Do you know if he was born in Dundalk?  If so there might be a Baptism cert.  I know a man who had no birth cert due to his birth (illigitimate) not being registered so he was able to get a copy of his baptismal cert instead - but you would need to know his parish to do so.

HTH
Aileen

[Juliefay]

Hi Frecklesjack,  Is that right? I was of the opinion that the main depositories, such as St Patricks Presbytery Dundalk, and /or St Peters Drogheda held ALL the baptisms for County Louth, and indeed a friend contacted those two churches looking for a baptism on my behalf (with NO luck, I might add)
It is looking more and more as though he could have been baptised with a different name altogether.
I have been researching for six years now and have not come across that name in any shape or form, just cannot get started.......... Thankyou for your input.. Juliefay

[frecklesjack]

Well I could be wrong on that but I know when we were looking for various people in the family tree we went directly to each parish and searched through the records.

I just had a quick look at an online database for the name "Dello" and it throws up the following:
http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=Dello
This very interesting surname recorded in the spellings of Dello, Dellow, and Dillow, can be described as being medieval English. However there are two possible origins. The first is Norman French and residential, and deriving from the words "de l'eau". This indicates somebody who lived by the water, or who possibly owned the rights to a lake or spring. Amongst the very early recordings is that of Henry del Ewe in the famous Hundred Rolls for the village of Oseney in the county of Oxfordshire, in the year 1250. The second origin is Olde English pre 7th century and from the words 'dell' meaning 'below' and 'hoh, a ridge, as in the recording of Walter Delho in the 1275 Hundred Rolls of Hertfordshire. To add to the confusion the surname is also a Huguenot introductiopn of the 17th century and later, and from here we have examples such as Benjamin Dilleau, a witness at Christchurch, Spitalfields, London, on December 19th 1755. Other early recordings taken from authentic church registers and local charters include:Joone Dyllowe, christened at St Bolotolphs church, Bishopgate, city of London, in 1584, John Dillow of Clerkenwell in 1679, William Dillo of Westminster in 1714, and George Dilew, also of London in 1820. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was usually known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

I'm wondering if it could be a case of the surname being spelled differently in registers than he grew up spelling it?  For example my own grandmother's surname is spelled differently on the birth records of her siblings - it was all down to the person writing the register deciding which way it "should" be spelt! 

Certainly Dellow, Dillow and Deleau throw up more results on a quick look at the family record seach.  It's probably something you've already looked into but it's worth throwing out there.

Good luck with your search
Aileen