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Branstom is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Branstom family once lived in Brandeston, a parish in Suffolk on the River Deben or in one of the villages named below.
The surname Branstom was first found in various shires including Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Staffordshire where we find today villages and civil parishes named Branston. These place names were derived from the Old English personal name Brant + "tun," as in "a farmstead or a village of a man called Brant." 1 All three locals were listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Brantestone (Leicestershire) Branztune (Lincolnshire) and Bronstinson (Staffordshire.)
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Branstom research. Another 340 words (24 lines of text) covering the years 1086, 1200, 1210, 1221, 1273, 1287, 1288, 1500, 1568, 1731, 1778, 1800 and 1827 are included under the topic Early Branstom History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Branstom family name include Branston, Brandeston, Branteston, Braunteston, Brancston, Braunston, Bramston and many more.
Another 30 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Branstom Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Branstom surname or a spelling variation of the name include: John Bramston who arrived in America in 1746; John Branston in America in 1773 and J. Branston in Philadelphia in 1856.