Re: are you my relatives?

As an additional info to any 'akester' interested,I have found'Family Name History' sent to us by my auntie Kath
as follows:
"Akester- it was only in the middle ages that the use of hereditary surnames became popular in england.Before then people took as second names the first name of their father, their place of birth, their trade or profession or a personal characteristic. However, with the growth of societies and the development of documentation,a better system was needed to distinguish one family from another and the use of hereditary surnames spread to all.

The english surname Akester is local in origin, being one of those names derived from the place where a man once lived or where he was held land. In this instance the name referred originally to someone from Acaster, the name of two parishes near Yorkshire. The name also passed from Yorkshire into Furness in Lancashire, taking also the form Akister.

Records of this name date back to the 13th century when Roger and Robert d' Acastre are listed among the knights who accompanied the nobleman Richard, brother of King John, to France, for the recovery of Gascony, in 1225.Roger d' Acastre was Richard's tutor. They were both granted land in Plympton,in Devon, and Roger gained more from 1217-1223.In the following century there is record of one Willian de Acastie among the Fremen of York in 1319 and one Robertus de Acastre and Johannes Acastre, in the Yorkshire Poll Tax, in 1379.

Verified and researched on 6th December 1991 Reg. No. 0197.