You may have Romani, Traveller or Gypsy ancestry if your family tree includes common Romani or Gypsy surnames such as Boss, Boswell, Buckland, Chilcott, Codona, Cooper, Doe, Lee, Gray/Grey, Harrison, Hearn, Heron, Hodgkins, Holland, Lee, Lovell, Loveridge, Royles/Ryalls, Scamp, Smith, Stevens/Stephens, Wood and Young.
The Boswells were for centuries one of England's largest and most important Gypsy families. The Boswell clan were a large extended family of Travellers, and in old Nottinghamshire dialect the word bos'll was used as a term for Travellers and Roma in general.
Roma have at least two given names: The gadžikano name is an official name used in direction to 'the others' while the romano name is an un-official name used within the community which in some traditional com- munities may have a protective function.
The term "Roma" has come to include both the Sinti and Roma groupings, though some Roma prefer being known as "Gypsies." Some Roma are Christian and some are Muslim, having converted during the course of their migrations through Persia, Asia Minor, and the Balkans.
Romanichal Travellers in England are generally known as "English Travellers" or "English Gypsies". They are found in England (as well as South Wales, Northeast Wales and the Scottish Borders), and they speak Angloromani.
Romanichals (UK: /ˈrɒmənɪtʃæl/ US: /-ni-/; more commonly known as English Gypsies) are a Romani subgroup within the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world.
In the late 20th century, it came to be used to describe "a lower-class person, regarded as coarse or disreputable". Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Romani ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode.
Romani groups tend to adopt the religion which is dominant in their countries of residence. In the Euro- pean context this means that they are either Christian or Muslim. Even though they often do not follow all religious rituals and practices, faith in God remains an important part of their life.
In comparison with other studied groups from Ukraine (mainly Ukrainians but also other minorities) Djaczenko found that Gypsies have the lowest cephalic index, the widest nose, darkest pigmentation, and the most dense beard. Generally those features are rather alien to Eastern European populations.
Alfred William Best, better known as Alfie Best (born 1970), is a British Romanichal businessman and philanthropist who is the current chairman of Wyldecrest Parks, a mobile home park company.
One village in Romania is home to many newly wealthy Gypsies - who've made their pile after the fall of communism. Many of the four-thousand townspeople of Buzescu, in Romania, are gypsies. But contrary to unflattering stereotypes, they're doing just fine. Their houses are opulent.
“Britain's richest gypsy” Alfie Best has revealed the brutal daily routine that has helped him forge a billion-pound empire. From humble beginnings in a caravan to losing everything in a recession and earning it back again, it's not been a straight ride to the top for Alfie.
Talk to older relatives for clues and family stories. Old family photos can help to identify Gypsy heritage. Photographs taken at gatherings such as hop picking or fairs might be a sign, although these were often annual events which brought together families from many backgrounds, not just Gypsies and Travellers.
So who are these people we call Travellers? They used to live mostly in caravans or mobile homes in which they travelled all over the country or into England. They have Irish surnames – Ward, Connors, Carty, O'Brien, Cash, Coffey, Furey, MacDonagh, Mohan.
Some of the better known areas of work that Gypsies and Travellers are involved in include seasonal agricultural work, motor trading and tree-felling. Some are employed as academics, teachers and public servants and in this way they add to the local economy.
Potato, peppers, cabbage and rice are often the building blocks in Romani cuisine. Rabbit stew is made with rabbit meat, innards, bacon and onions. The Roma consume roasted apples, almond cakes, clay-baked hedgehog and trout, snails in broth, and fig cakes as a snack. Baked hedgehog is flavored with garlic.
The term Gypsy, Roma and Traveller has been used to describe a range of ethnic groups or people with nomadic ways of life who are not from a specific ethnicity.
The Shelbys are specifically of Irish-Romani descent and refer to themselves as Gypsies, but their lifestyle differs from other Gypsy characters in the show. The use of the term "Gypsies" in Peaky Blinders is historically accurate, though many Romani people now prefer terms like "Rom" or "Roma."
Pikey is actually a word discribing non-Gypsy (as in non-Romani) travellers. Romani gypsies have called non-Romani travellers as pikies for years. "Often they would often say they're not gypsy they're pikies" when refering to non-Romani travellers of the UK.
The High Court has rejected a claim that Gypsies occupying caravans on private land were discriminated against by legislation which resulted in them not being able to claim full Housing Benefit to cover their rent.
Yet the dedication to cleaning – born during nomadic days when keeping wagons clear from dust and dirt on the road was a tough undertaking for traveller women – remains important. As a result, cleaning is a process that takes priority over everything else – including school.
No. Roma identity is something you're born with. Your Romanipen is what defines you as a Roma person (aka “gypsy”, though that word is a racial slur). It's something you are born with and raised in, and almost impossible for an outside to understand or adopt.
