Tilliduff Name Study

Profile managers: Christine Searle [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

The Tilliduff Name Study is also registered with the Guild of One Name Studies.

About the Project

The Tilliduff Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Tilliduff name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Tilliduff name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically or by time period. These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

How to Join

Are you connected to the Tilliduffs or Tullidephs? I would love to have you join me in my search for members of the family.

To join the Tilliduff Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study.

• England, Tilliduff_Name_Study
• Scotland, Tilliduff_Name_Study
• Antigua, Tilliduff_Name_Study
• South_Africa, Tilliduff_Name_Study

Membership

• Christine Searle

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

• Tullideph

Tilliduff at Guild of One-Name-Studies

The Tilliduff One-Name-Study website is hosted by The Guild of One-Name-Studies

Surname Background

The first mention of this surname was in 1317 when John de Tolidef was noted as appearing before the Baillies of Aberdeen to ask for lands that he had inherited through his mother Alice to be transferred to him. (cf. Miscellany of the Spalding Club Vol. V page 13). It is known that at one time they lived at the barony of Tillydaff, in Midmar, Aberdeenshire, a name which persists today. The barony comprised not only the existing areas of North and South Tillydaff, (National Library of Scotland) but Orchardtown, (where the Tillydaffs "of that ilk" lived) Rothmaise and Logierieve, in addition to Ranieston, where another branch of the family lived (cf. The Thanage of Fermartyn by Rev. Wm. Temple). It is a Celtic name meaning Hill of the Oxen (Tulloch = hill, Damh = Of the oxen). (cf. Celtic Place Names in Aberdeenshire – John Milne M.A.., LL.D) There are also references to Tillyduff in place names around St. Combs, but these relate to another source (The Black Hill - Tulloch = hill, duff= dubh, black.) and was once a croft.

At least twenty-four Tillydaffs (or similar spellings) are recorded as having been Burgesses of Aberdeen between 15th and 17th centuries. Early references to the family are all in Aberdeenshire, but by 16th century they appear also in St. Andrews and Leslie in Fife. A 16th century Tullydaff lived in Orkney (he is believed to have been a tax collector for the Earl of Moray, sending feathers back to the Earl by way of tax) and his daughter married a Shetlander.

From early on the Fife families are usually Tullideph, with occasional oddities such as Dullidaphe in the early days. Among their ranks there is a Covenanter, a Principal of the United Colleges of St. Andrews University, several distinguished Ministers of the Kirk, and a Doctor of Medicine cum sugar planter cum plant collector in Antigua who made his fortune, and the people of Dundee commemorated him by naming streets and buildings after him. Oliver Tullideph was a nephew of George Wishart the Martyr and was the unwitting catalyst for the destruction of the religious buildings in Perth in 1559 after a sermon by John Knox. (cf. The Book of Perth by J. Parker Lawson)

By the 19th century there was just one branch, the Tilliduffs in London, who stemmed from Robert Tullideph, son of Thomas, who went to London after leaving the army. Two Tilliduff families migrated to South Australia, taking two daughters with them but the name there died out with them. One female Tilliduff migrated to Rockland County, New York State, but married and died without progeny. The Tullideph line is now only a middle name, having died out completely early in the 19th century as a surname, while there is just one family of Tilliduffs remaining, descended from Frederick Charles Tilliduff who emigrated to South Africa in 1947. (Unless you know different! I would be delighted to be wrong.)

Sources

General Register Office Indexes of Births Marriages and Deaths (1837 – 2007)

LDS Vital Records Indexes for UK

Birth, marriage and death records from Australia

Pallott Marriage and Baptism Indexes

Boyd's Marriage Index (London)

London Metropolitan Archives Register of burials

London Burial Index

Census Indexes 1841 – 1911 for England & Wales

Scottish Old Parish Registers

Midlothian – Edinburgh: East Lothian - Dunbar

Perth – Perth, Dunbarney, Errol, Dron, Logierait

West Lothian - Uphall or Strathbrock

Aberdeenshire – Aberdeen, Ellon

Fife – Dunfermline, Carnock, St. Andrews & St. Leonards, Markinch, Ferryport on Craig, Leslie, Ceres, Scoonie, Forgan, Kennoway

Ayr – Kilmarnock, Stewarton

Angus – Dundee, Kingoldrum.

Other Records

Celtic Place Names in Aberdeenshire – John Milne M.A.., LL.D.

England & Wales Criminal Registers 1791 – 1892

Electoral Rolls for England & Wales

London, England, School Admissions and Discharges, 1840-1911

British Phone Books 1880 - 1984

Wills and Testaments of St. Andrews Commissary Court

Wills and Testaments of Edinburgh Commissary Court

UK Outward Passenger Lists 1890 – 1960

Aberdeen Register of Burgess for 1399 – 1630

Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae – Hew Scott D.D.

Academic Patronage in the Scottish Enlightenment - Roger L. Emerson

The Book of Perth – John Parker Lawson

Aberdeen Friars: Red, Black, White, Grey - comp. by P. J. Anderson

Debretts Peerage of 1868

Caledonian Mercury

The Adelaide Chronicle

The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848-1954)

Religious Society of Friends of South Australia

The London Gazette

Scots Magazine

St. Andrews University Archives

Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis : selections from the records of the Marischal College and University, MDXCIII-MDCCCLX

JSTOR – Natural History Museum Collections

British Library Shetland Documents 1195 to 1580

Wikipedia - List of Moderators of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland

The articles of agreement between the King of France, the Parliament, and Parisians: with a list of the names of those who signed thereunto, on the King's, Parliaments, and citizens behalf – Adam Thonif

The New Statistical Account of Scotland Vol. X, Perth, published by William Blackwood in 1845

Army Lists for Third Regiment of Footguards (the Buffs) at National Archives

The University of Edinburgh Survey of Scottish Witchcraft Database

The Thanage of Fermartyn - Rev. William Temple

Extracts from the Burgh records of Dunfermline in 16th and 17th centuries

A History of the Family of Seton During Eight Centuries

The Miscellany of the Spalding Club Vol. V.

Drown, Isabelle McLean, comp.. Scottish Covenanters Index

The History of the Island of Antigua Vol. 3 - Vere Langford Oliver