This review originally appeared in the Open Access journal Names, available online here. If you would like your own copy of John Moss’ Great British Family Names and Their History, it is available on Amazon here (Amazon affiliate link). The popular study of surnames has experienced something of a rebirth in the English-speaking world, particularly when used as evidence of family “origins” and history. Constructing family trees remains a popular pastime, facilitated by a number of ancestry sites and commercial DNA services. John Moss’s
Wǣrmund Smythe and Angell