Our Atwoods in this blog and others

As far as this blog, the Atwoods of interest are primarily my own Atwoods, but covers other families as well. Brown, McIntosh, LaRoche, Fatio, Schley, Welsman, and other families as discovered as part of my family.
Our Atwoods include those emigrating to New England in the colonial period and further migration to Georgia in the 19th Century, intermarrying with families of the colonial and federal period of Georgia, with ties back to Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire (now Germany, for example), Italy, France, Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland (among others undoubtedly). Most of us in America who are multiple generation, new Americans, are mutts in some form or another.

Where are our touchstones in America?  Massachusetts and then Connecticut are the landing places of our earliest American Atwoods. Plymouth, MA onward to Wethersfield (Hartford), CT, and on to Darien/Valona/Cedar Point, these all in coastal Georgia, on to Waycross, GA and Atlanta.

Other ancestors covered in this site hailed from various points in Europe landing in Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah (photo), Saint Augustine, and surely other locales in colonial or early America.

Savannah, seen from the Exchange tower.

Peter DeWyckhurst

Peter DeWyckhurst (or Atte Wode) lived 900 years ago, did you know he has a Facebook page? True. And thanks to the industrious Atwood who created it (not me). See it here: Peter-De-Wyckhurst Facebook page

Peter is our earliest recorded English ancestor, perhaps, born about 1180, with over 90 million people on Earth as descendants, not all of them Atwoods. In England, official languages have been Latin and French, before English, and accordingly there have been variants in spelling.

Atwood origins: are we related?

It's a work in progress, so bear with me. DeWyckhurst, Du Bois, De Bosco, Bosco, Boyes, De Boyes, Wood, Woods, Atte Wode, Attwood, and all the other variants. If your name is one of these, then you are an Atwood, and we are probably related. Depending on the prevailing language of the day, the name spelling was changed to suit. During someone's lifetime, it often varied depending on the scribe.
Atwood origins have been traced to surviving documents in England dating from the 12th Century CE. Some sources out there trace also to continental Europe to France. More on that later. Below is our Coat of Arms and there are numerous versions as generations made changes. I ask forbearance to whomever created this version of the crest (as I've borrowed it). Rampant Lion with gold acorns on a red shield.