A long time ago, my ancestors lived yonder the woods and ’round the bushes, probably near Bysshebury, there under the rolling green hills.
Well, they didn’t exactly lived under the hills, so to speak, like the hobbits who made homes out of the holes under them. Maybe J. R. R. Tolkein, who knew an Underhill family intimately well many years ago, probably got a funny idea about the surname, incorporated it for his famous epic you-know-what. Nevertheless, the surname may have originated from an old French-Norman/Germanic name, by a family who came to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066 and probably settled in West Midlands and the surrounding counties, perhaps eventually become a place-name to describe a family who lived by or “under the hill”.
And the name become stuck ever since! Thank God there isn’t “overhill”.
Welcome to Under The Hill. And a very Happy New Year to you. May 2009 be the year of something and everything else, for better or for worse, and for all of us.
This WordPress blog will be a work-in-progress, unlike the Yahoo 360 Roblog of old, since it is all a new experience for me. Trials and errors stuff, you know. Comments are open, please keep your comment polite, to-the-point and considerate and I may follow-up or answer you whenever I get the chance. Any nasty, rude, whining or hateful comment will get deleted (don’t cry censorship please). Get the idea of such rules like my friend Mike posted for his blog.
Enjoy. ;o)
01/01/2008 at 3:10 pm
Ah, great! Looking forward to many new blogs from you. Here’s to 2008!
11/11/2008 at 4:34 pm
Excellent blog! Interesting article and very informative! I will necessarily subscribe for this blog.
Blogger’s note: I removed the link to your site since it is all in Russian and none of my regular visitors read/understand Russian. Sorry but thanks for your comment.
03/30/2009 at 3:13 am
I’m delighted to meet you! Quite by serendipitous chance do I find you; while searching for yet another thing I found your article about the deep freeze of 1709.
There I left a message for a previous poster who seemed quite rude. My address to him most certainly is not intended for you, but hopefully that is obvious by inspection.
Here: I mark this site for further exam and hope to speak with you again anon.
Mrrphh
Seattle (USA)
10/09/2009 at 7:03 pm
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case, great info…I will add a backlink and bookmark your site. Keep up the good work!
10/12/2009 at 8:33 am
Just wanted to drop you a line to say, I enjoy reading your site. I thought about starting a blog myself but don’t have the time.
Oh well maybe one day….
10/13/2009 at 12:50 pm
Hey, I really enjoy your blog. I have a blog too in a totally unrelated field, but I like to check in here on a regular basis, just to see what’s going on and it’s always interesting to say the least. It’s always entertaining what people have to say.