2,199 Global DRYSDALE Family Members

DRYSDALE Family History

This interesting locational name, with the variants Drysdall and Drysdell, is Scottish in origin, from Dryfesdale, a parish in county Dumfries. The parish takes its name from the River Dryfe and the Olde English "Doel" meaning valley. The use of village or parish names for surnames was quite common among persons who migrated from their native homes and would thereafter be known as being from that place. For example, as in the case of two brothers, William and James Douglas who in May 1503 being outlawed from Drysdale as a result of a right-of-way dispute involving killings, settled in Fifeshire. They changed their names to Drysdale which accounts for the adoption and popularity of the name there...