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I am trying to trace my Romany gypsy background and I don’t know how to do this it is proving difficult, the surnames that are known Romany gypsy names are hardy, goldsmith, fisher im aware we are Romany however I would love to be able to trace other family members , I was brought up as Romany but in a house not as normadic so we were settled Romany , however I would really like to proove my Romany side as my children are being brought up Romany, and to trace other members and even get in contact would be brilliant. Any help would be appreciated from anyone that knows how to do this ??.
my father is Leslie melvyn hardy 1966
Grandfather Leslie Charles hardy 1942
great Grandfather William George hardy (bill) not sure of year
Great grandmother Gertrude maid goldsmith 1923 ish
great great grand mother was surname fisher I don’t know any more ,
Any help would be much appreciated.

Go to the website Cyndi's list and put in a search for Romany and several helpful suggestions will come up.Aso try R &TFHS .I hope this is of some help to you :-)

I've pmed you the 1939 register with newlywed Gertrude and husband living in Kings Lynn area with her widowed mother, also named Gertrude (nee Fisher), and some of her Goldsmith siblings.

Looks like your great grandmother was born 1917, your great grandfather 1919, if dates in 1939 reg are correct. He also seems to have been Charles W (illiam?) on their marriage the same year.

There are several Hardy births mmn Goldsmith in the Kings Lynn area, though your grandfather seems to have been registered in Manchester.

Can't cut and paste as on my tablet.

Check out freebmd

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/

I'm sure you'll get more help from others in the morning.

A lot of this has been covered before...

https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1371133

Nothing standing out as a Romany background on that thread.

You may need to follow the leads you were given back then for the Hardy, Dale, Southgate, Goldsmith and Fisher families and see if anything shows up in the nineteenth century...

Helen, I have had a quick look at the Goldsmith family simply because I very much doubted that it was a Romani name. I could find nothing to suggest it would be.

Occupations ranged from agricultural and general labourers to seafarers and fishermen.

As Kucinta wrote that she could find nothing stands out as Romani, may I ask what makes you think that you are?

It interested me because many years ago when I began to research my family someone contacted me to say that of course I would know that my great-grandmother’s family were Romani because of their very dark hair and skin colour. It was tosh as not only are we as a family a mix of hair (blonde, ginger and dark) and skin colours there was nothing anywhere to indicate any Romani/traveller connection at all - apart from the fact that one of my ancestors changed his surname to one which supposedly has Romani connotations although I doubt that he knew that fact. He more likely changed it as it is a very common surname in the area where he then lived so it would have been harder for him to be detected.

Please use the original thread on Find Ancestors where a lot of help has been given