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THE ORIGIN AND ARMS OF THE NAME MEDLEY

Bardsley’s Dictionary of English Surnames 1901 gives:

(a) At the mid-lea i.e residence in the middle field.
(b) At the mead-lea i.e. residence in the meadow pasture.

H.Harrison’s Surnames of the United Kingdom Vol. II 1918 gives:

(a) The meadow field derived from Old English moed + leah.
(b) The middle lea derived from Old English midd + leah.

Such may, indeed, have been the origin of the name of the township or Manor of Methley but our research indicates that the early ancestors of all existing Medley branches used the territorial designation “de Methley” to show residence in, or possession of land in, the Manor of Methley, near Leeds in Yorkshire, and that this was adopted as a “locative surname” by James de Methley about 1230. Various different spellings such as Metherly, Madeley, Metlay and others can be found down the years, until MEDLEY became generally to be accepted as the Family Name in the 16th Century.

 

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The Bones of My Bones

The bones here are bones of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It goes to doing something about it. It goes to pride in what our ancestors were able to accomplish. How they contributed to what we are today. It goes to respecting their hardships and losses, their never giving in or giving up, their resoluteness to go on and build a life for their family. It goes to deep pride that the fathers fought and some died to make and keep us a nation. It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before. 'It goes to a deep and immense understanding that they were doing it for us. It is of equal pride and love that our mothers struggled to give us birth, without them we could not exist, and so we love each one, as far back as we can reach. That we might be born who we are. That we might remember them. So we do. With love and caring and scribing each fact of their existence, because we are they and they are the sum of who we are. So, as a scribe called, I tell the story of my family. It is up to that one called in the next generation to answer the call and take my place in the long line of family storytellers. That is why I do my family genealogy, and that is what calls those young and old to step up and restore the memory or greet those who we had never known before.' by Della M. Cummings Wright; Rewritten by her granddaughter Dell Jo Ann McGinnis Johnson; Edited and Reworded by Tom Dunn, 1943.


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