Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.
My Kellaway One-Name Study commenced about 1990, when I learned the origin of the name was the village of Caillouet in France. I commenced research with the 1923 Death Certificate of my great grandfather John Marron Fever Kellaway, born in Dorset in 1830, and it took some time to discover, by eventually searching the Dorset Fevers, that he was born Marian, named after his uncle Marian Fever. However I had begun an extensive County-wide search of the Dorset Parish Registers, and continued to discover further Kellaways, including other versions of the name. Long interest in History inevitably developed into researching the Medieval story, which has probably been the area of our greatest success. Together with a dedicated group of family researchers, we have been able to not only take the family back to pre-Conquest times, but also discover that a large number of other similar, and not so similar names, actually relate.
The name was registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 2011.
The registered variants are Kelleway, Callaway, Calloway, Kelway, and Calway. There have however been over 400 versions of the name found during the past 1000 years.
In the 11-1200s, family members could be known as de Caillouet or de Cailly. The close relationship of the two villages, Caillouet and Cailly-sur-Eure seemingly confirming the family relationship. The translation from French to English, with added dialectic and phonetic differences, has created a number of alternative spellings, some of which have continued to the present day. Among them Cayley, Kelly, Callow, Kellow. Today there are French and US Caillouets. Historical records have linked locational names such as Weston, Stalbridge Weston in Dorset, and Stafford, Stafford Barton in Devon. Aliases, occupational names such as Webbe and Clarke.
The origin of the name is locational, from the village of Caillouet in Eure, France. The family is believed descended from Osbert de Cailly, who was born about 1010. The first recognisable version of the name however was that of Roger de Kaillewi/de Cailli in the early 1100s. About 1145 Philip de Chaileway married Hawisa de Beaumont, the eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester. Philip died before 1150, and Hawisa married the Earl of Gloucester. His presumed son Philip held property in Worcestershire and Wiltshire between 1165-8, another presumed son Nicholas, in Devon. The Wiltshire land is believed to have been the property known today as Kellaways. Until the time they left the manor in 1429, members of the family would be known as de Caillewey, de Kaillewey, or similar versions current at the time. Confirming the locational base.
An aberration occurred in the 12-1300s, when the senior family, at that time probably living at Stalbridge Weston in Dorset, could be called le Calewe. (Possibly because one had been bald.)
They did not use the de in Devon. While in Durham, the family of Richard de Kellawe, Bishop of Durham from 1311-16, gradually lost the last French 'e acute', pronounced 'ay' to become Kellaw.
There have been a number of people and occurrences recorded. Some of these are:
At this time there are no statistics available on family name frequency or distribution today, but Kellaway is the most common spelling in the UK, with the greatest representation in Dorset.
Kellaway is dominant in Devon, while there are members in Wiltshire, Somerset and Cornwall.
Callaway is dominant in Hampshire, with members in Somerset, Wiltshire and Cornwall.
The Isle of Wight is unusual in having Kellaway spellings on the west end, Callaway the east.
In the US, the dominant spelling is Callaway, the two principal families having lived there from the mid 1600s. There are Calloways and Kellaways.
There are Kellaways and Callaways in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
The spelling variants occur in all locations, while vowel variants, and even some C and K variations for the same family member, have occurred into the 1800s.
Data is available for Dorset Kellaway families, up to the mid 1800s.
Through links with other researchers for Kellaway, Callaway, and some other spellings, for Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. Plus London and a few other Counties.
An extended treatise on the Medieval family, and the later Dorset families is available. Also articles on several people and events in family history.
The Callaway Family DNA Project has proven very successful in determining family links.
One major US Callaway family shares DNA with a UK Kellaway family. Matching DNA is shared by name variants. Members of my own Dorset DNA family have the C spelling, due to moving Counties.