question re French Gypsies

oldsouth

This is a bit off topic, but does anyone know anything about French Gypsy history? One branch of my family are Guytons. It has long been rumored in my families history that perhaps the Guytons were of partial Gypsy descent. I'm not sure if this is merely the phonetic similarity in the surname Guyton to Gitan - not sure where to start on this research; just curious.

kevingcox

The similarity between Guyton and Gitan doesn't seem immediately phonetic to me, at least in this modern era. Of course if you throw widespread illiteracy, a few generations, an ocean and a continent of separation into a pot it and stir words can change immensely. The spelling makes them seem similar but "gee-tohn" and "jzhee-tahn" don't sound alike to me, at least not today. That's assuming you pronounce the first word with a French spin on "guy" and not an English one ("gye-tohn" or even "gye-tun").

But like I said, illiteracy can change a lot of things. That's why Django's name was recorded as Jean-Got by some French bureaucrat, or why some Korean-Americans were saddled with the last name "Lee" when immigration officials refused to allow them to have a last name that consisted only of the vowel sound "e" in English (like happened to my brother-in-law's family). The idea that some American office worker just didn't hear a difference between the French sounds "-ton" and "-tan" is not too strange, many of my students can't hear or pronounce the difference. And maybe they were hunting for a way to write "Jzhee" and came up with "Guy" for lack of other options.

Sorry, this was just rambling really. It is interesting, at least to me. Let us know if you discover anything.

oldsouth

Thanks - I find it very interesting as well. There is actually a little region in France named Guyton and a town in Georgia that some my ancestors from France founded also named Guyton. As best I can tell, the one in France is pronounced geetahn, while the one in Ga is pronounce guy-ton (English pronunciation). So, I get what you are saying. Like I said, it is just a rumor in my family and may have nothing to do with the spelling of the surname - but, with lack of clear genealogical records, I'm just guessing. The other French side of my family is DuBuysson, which is a much clearer lineage.