Discovered 5 years ago that my mother's family were Romany. Had my maternal DNA tested (which I expected to be one of the standard British or West European types) and it turned out to be Persian. All British names in that line going back several hundred years so I couldn't figure out what was going on until someone suggested I look into a Romany connection. Turns out that when the first Romany left India they went into Persia and took wives there.
Anyway, my mother's family were from Northeast Wales and Shropshire around Ellesmere. Names in the family were Price/Pryce,Roberts, Davies and Crew/Crewe. The Price was my grandfather Charles and he was a groom as a youth. Later as an adult he was the one you went to in town if your horse needed care. His brother Bill raised whippets and budgies and later moved to Blackpool and worked on the Pleasure Beach hawking.
The Roberts was my greatgrandmother, Mary Ann (also known as just "Ann") and full Romany. She is the one in my direct female line for the DNA. One of her sisters was named Tryphene which was a name used by the Romany.
Also the Dovaston family is in our line who were not originally Romany but had probably intermarried. They were miners and agricultural labourers and quite poor.
Grandfather, Charles Price, left my grandmother (born Mary Ann Dovaston) about 1930 and she moved the family to Blackpool. No one told my mother that they were Romany and being the youngest she had little memory of Shropshire. Grandmother used the Welsh spelling, Pryce and others in the family used both at various times. She too worked on the Pleasure Beach during World War II along with her brother-in-law Bill Price. My mother's brother Edward ("Ted") spent many years at sea in the Merchant Navy and in later years owned taxis in Leeds.
Also, does anyone know of a connection between Shropshire and Blackpool for the Romany as it seems to have been the place my relatives went to when they wanted to leave the Ellesmere area?
Any info or suggestions you might have would be greatly appreciated. My discovery has been welcomed by many in the family as it explains so many things that seemed puzzling before.
