Harfield
William Harfield (ca 1732?-?)
Maria Harfield (1788-?)
Harfield
meaning and origins
I could only find one website with an origin/meaning of the name and it claimed it is topographical - i.e of a place - in this case Harfield (or Herefeld) in Middlesex. The name means a dweller at the field of the army of the people, which sounds rather too complicated to me. It also seems that the Harfields are really concentrated in Hampshire, so why Middlesex. Anyway this is all I can find.
variations
Harford, Hafford, Hereford, Hareford.
distribution in England and Wales
Hugely concentrated in Hsmpshire.
This is part of the direct maternal line - which many say is much more important genetically speaking than the male line.
At this stage I do not know a lot about them - like so many of our ancestors. Farmers - well yeomen which implies they didn’t actually own the land they farmed. Still the one farm I know about was 58 acres, which is reasonably large for England I would have thought. Maybe not.
The only other thing I know about this family is that two sisters married the same man. How is that possible? I thought it was illegal back then!
