History

My investigations into my family began about 1969 by writing to all people with the surname MAISHMAN that were listed in the telephone directories of England and Wales. There were only about 12 at that time. I asked them to give me basic information about themselves, their parents and grandparents. From their replies I was able to construct my first (manual) charts and I discovered that all belonged to one or other of two separate MAISHMAN families.

I then visited the General Register Office at Somerset House and later St. Catherine's House where I extracted all birth, marriage and death records for MAISHMAN. Over the last 30 years, in which I have visited many more record offices, I have managed to get back to my GGGGGrandfather's marriage in Thatcham, Berks in 1771. We have also traced the other family back to William MAISHMAN born about 1788 in London.

Significant events have included

�	the discovery in 1990 by my Australian 4th cousin that he was not the last surviving MAISHMAN on the planet

�	correspondence in 1997 with a MAISHMAN in South Africa

�	receipt of an Email in 1998 from a descendant of a MAISHMAN in New Zealand

�	our inaugural family union in 1998

�	our first family reunion in May 2000.

Possible derivation of the name MAISHMAN - in German maischen means 'to mash', so a person who does so would be called maischmann. (There are people with the name MASCHMANN in Germany today). When people with this name came to England their name would have been anglicised to MASHMAN, whereas those going to America (such as the Pennsylvania Deutsch) would have retained the spelling MASCHMANN.

It would seem that some MASHMANs preferred the spelling MAISHMAN, which was nearer the original German, whereas others changed to MAISHMENT, MARCHMAN, MARCHMENT or similar.

I would be glad to hear from anyone who would like to comment on the above, especially people with any of these alternative surnames. [email protected]