Surname Portis and variations
Hi. I am asking for some help with regard to name variations in IOW County, VA and Southampton County which was formed about 1750 from IOW.
I am researching the Poythress surname which often appears in such variations as Porthress, Portress and even sometimes as Poythreff for those who in transcribing didn't recognize the contemporary handwriting that rendered a symbol looking like "fs" or "ff" for double-s.
All of the following is pure speculation on my part but I have thrashed about in mostly Southampton records and am at the point of guessing that the surnames Poythress, Portis and Porteous represent distinct and separate families and that all minor variations of those three names are simply subjective clerk's spellings.This is not to say that a
Poythress couldn't be rendered as Portis while the man clearly was not a Portis or vice versa.
Porteous/Porteus seems to be the most distinct as it is well researched. It is stated that the family immigrated from Scotland. There appear to be at least two gedcoms clearly tracing the family.
Poythress is from the sole immigrant Francis Poythres (b. 1609) who arrives VA about 1632. They are largely from Charles City, Prince George, and Dinwiddie counties although a couple or so seem to have drifted SW into IOW and Southampton Counties. Francis was from the West Country
of England in Gloucestershire.This family is also widely
researched but has a number of loose ends as their home counties are "burned."
Portis seems to be also distinct but without the benefit of the extensive research of the other two (or, at least, I haven't found it). Various sources on the net identify the
family as from Scotland or Ireland.
Anyone able to enlighten me further on the subject.I would be most appreciative.It stikes me that those representing any one of the three surnames might find their research easier if there is some logical way to separate the three.
John M. Poythress