Very occasionally we research a surname for which we can find recordings, but no obvious origin, meaning, or even nationality. This is one of them. It does not seem to be English but it was recorded in the church registers of the city of London from mid Victorian times as shown below. This was a period of history when Great Britain was not only the the leading industrialised country in the world, but the most stable. France, Germany and Austria were either at war with each other, or about to start, and therefore between 1850 and 1870 many people left the Continent and came to the United Kingdom in search of security. We believe that this family may have been amonst them, although this is not in anyway confirmed by the recordings. We also believe that this name may originally have been of French origins and a form of the surname Droud or Droudt, although again the origin and meaning is obscure. The 't' suffix would suggest a form of German, although no such spelling seems to be found in the registers and dictionaries of Germany. These sample recordings include Jean Droudt who married Marie Blaise at Crevechan, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, on October 4th 1801, and in London that of John and Elizabeth Draude, christening witnresses at the church of St Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, on January 23rd 1870.

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