ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS WEBSITE IS NOW RETIRED. I HAVE MOVED MY FAMILY TREE TO ANCESTRY.COM.
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This is the main family tree of the Suthers families of Stansfield, Langfield, Todmorden, Walsden and Wadsworth in the counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire, England.
The first family member to settle in Todmorden was Robert SUTHERD, who settled at Shore in the township of Stansfield (in the ancient parish of Halifax, West Yorkshire), sometime before 1685. Robert was descended from the SUTHWORTH (Southworth) family of Edenfield (near Bury, Lancashire) that flourished there in the early 1600's.
The Suthworth family of Edenfield is included in this family tree, beginning with Thomas "of Andrewes" Suthworth of Edenfield Lane, the oldest identified ancestor. He had a son named Andrew, and it is anticipated that Thomas' father might have also been called "Andrew", hence the nickname "of Andrewes".
From this family tree emerged the surnames SUTHARD/SUTHERD/SUTHERS (in Todmorden, Yorkshire), SUTHERST/SUTHURST (in Bury & Haslingden, Lancashire), SUDDERS (in Blackburn & Burnley, Lancashire) and SUDDARDS (in Bradford, Yorkshire). In Stansfield and Todmorden, the family name gradually changed from SUTHERD to SUTHERS, and the name SUTHERD virtually ceased to exist after 1756. Some alternative name spellings (or misspellings) that might be encountered in written records are SOOTHARD, SOOTHERS, SUTHARD, SWOTHERS, SOTHERD, SOTHARD, SOUTHERS, SOWTHERD, SUDARD, SUDDARD, SUDDERS, SUOTHERS, SUTHARSE, SUTHORS, SUTHES and SWOOTHERS.
Many thanks go to all the people who contributed directly or indirectly to the development of this family tree (which began about 1996) including Linda Espeut, Douglas Wilson, Wendy Stansfield, Graeme Suthers, Jean Sanderson, Peter Suthers, Barbara Suthers, Keith Suthers, Jason Suthers, J David Suthers and many many more.
Some dates preceding 1752 are entered with two years (eg: 22 Feb 1739/1740). This is standard notation for entering dates using both the Julian calendar (old style) and Gregorian calendar (new style) format, where the first year refers to the old calendar and the second year refers to the present Gregorian calendar. I have generally assumed that pre-1752 dates extracted from the IGI were in the Julian Calendar format, and I have converted them to OS/NS format. Steve Suthers 29 Mar 2011.