A Descendant of the Textile Trade

Fate would have it. I was contacted recently by a chap in New Zealand who is doing research on the last name we share. Twiss. I'm curious. We are corresponding.

This is some information I found from the website he is building with his father.

From a dictionary of English surnames.

• Twist English (chiefly Lancs. and W Midlands): of uncertain origin, possibly a metonymic occupational name for someone in the cotton spinning industry whose responsibility was to combine threads into strong cord, a sense of twist recorded from the 16th cent.
• There is an Old English word twisla, the meaning of which is "a fork in a river". Where two threads, or branches of a river, are joined together they form a Twist / Twiss. Originally Twiss was the middle bit of the top half of the 'Y'.

• Our family traces its origin back to Twizel on the border country of England and Scotland c1200, with oddments of history down to 1570; from where we are able to trace continuing bloodlines to the present day.

Variation: Twiss.

• Others are of the opinion that the name derives from the locality, in particular the hamlet of Twiss Green in Lancs.
• David Mills says, "Twiss Green - Fork in the river; which in 1258 derived from the Old English Twist to Twisse. Green has been added later, so we have Twistgrene in 1565, later still becoming Twiss Green.
  There is an Old English word Twisla, the meaning of which is "a fork in a river".
• MacLysagt says, "a locative English name signifying dwelling by a bend in the road....."Twiss Green is one of the ares where many Twiss families settled after having left Twizel in 15th & 16th centuries.
• There is a widely held opinion that we are of German origin. The Twiss families in Germany are actually descended from those traders who settled in Rotterdam from England, primarily in the wool trade.
  

The synopsis above is taken from a document compiled by Patrick and his son Gerald Twiss of New Zealand. The synopsis was then edited by me, Miss Twiss. There are spelling errors, creative sentence structures, few links and short-formed names. I find the information quaint but yet not of validity.

For further details please contact Gerald . He is always interested in seeing peoples family lines. If you have any details of Twiss relatives as far back as you know, birthdates, jobs, where they lived etc. Then please get in touch.

geroAThugDOTcoDOTnz