NORWAY ROOTS???

This “story” is attached to a family tree on Ancestry.com. It is a “hand-in-glove” fit with the Eidsons from Virginia in our Sherman family tree (where Boyce is used abundantly as a first or middle name, since at least three-four Eidson women married Sherman men.). This account suggests answers to some long-standing questions, such as, Why did I choose Norway for my Fulbright experience?—and Where did all those tall blondes come from in my brother Lloyd’s family? —Dorothy Sherman Schmidt

Boyce: The Personal Name in the Eidson Family

by Robert Griffis Eidson


We Eidson's of Darke and Preble Counties, Ohio, have long wondered about the personal name Boyce in our family. My father, and a brother, carry the name. My father was proud of his name. He told me that his grandfather of Preble Co,. and his second and third grandfather's of Bedford Co., Va. were also named Boyce. But he, nor anyone else, knew how the name had entered the family—where a Boyce woman had married an Eidson man. Its origin was unknown.

Having the time at 86 years [of age] we decided some months ago to record for our descendants what we had learned of the Boyce subject [but] to do the subject justice…would require a book. So, we devised the method here of placing the pertinent details …and put[ting] in writing how the records were found, their place in our ancestral line, and, most importantly… the surprising origin of Boyce—from the handsome, influential Frisians.…

The "Original" Boyce of 1732 Va. and The Eidson-Boyes Marriage 1600
We had no possible connection between 1732 Va. and ca 1600 England until in 1979 Mrs. Wanda Eidson, Weatherford, Tx., found the 1680 record in Dublin, Ireland, of the baptism of Edward Eidson, son of Denys and Hannah Eidson. The evidence points to this Edward of Dublin being the same person as the 1732 Edward of Virginia.…

The Boyes Family of Yorkshire, England
Having obtained a somewhat plausible ancestral line for we American Eidson's back to Isabel Boyes Eidson of Yorkshire, England, the obvious questions were: Who were the Boyes family, and from what European nation had they come to England?
Our study has taken two surprising turns: They came to England from Norway, but their origin was not Norwegian but Frisian. The variants of Boyes, and the Frisian "Boy" are numerous in Norway… the Oslo telephone directory… has 49 variants of the names from Boye, Boyes, to Boyesen.
The finding of the Frisian connection with our Boyes family of Leeds Parish in England was again quite fortuitous. Our Norwegian correspondents had written us that they doubted that Boyes was of Norwegian origin. In the old Webster's Collegiate Dictionary that our daughters had used in their school days we found "boy, Frisian origin".
It appears that the Frisians have never received their "just dues" regarding their influence on the development of the English nation. It has been usurped by the term Anglo-Saxon England. As author Blair has written, the term Anglo-Saxon has become established by long usage although the Frisians have obviously had a greater effect on the nation as shown by the close relationship of the English and Frisian languages. Apparently we should not use the term Anglo-Saxon England; a more appropriate term would be Frisian England.
The Frisians are an ethnic group, not a nation, occupying "since the earliest times", the islands along the southern coast of the North Sea, which are owned by Holland, Germany, and Denmark. Their language is a Germanic dialect. It is the closest to modern English of all the continental languages.
The Frisians were a seapower before the Scandinavian Vikings of 750-1030 AD. One author has suggested that they may have taught seamanship to the Vikings as they had traded along the Norwegian coast as far north as Tronder, some 400 miles north of Bergen.
Our Frisian Ancestors
The Frisians colonized eastern Britain starting with Kent, East Anglia, and Sussex.
The Frisians are among the blondest people of the world, blue eyes to light mixed; they are tall, long legged, broad shouldered, with large heads, faces, and noses.
The Frisians occupied their present home about 150 BC.
The Frisian language of low German is still spoken in the Friesland province of N.E. Holland, and many of the nearby islands along the North Sea coast. Other Low German tribes were the Old Saxon, Anglo Saxon, and the Franks.
Ptolemy, 77-147 AC, Egyptian geographer, placed the Frisians between the rivers Ems and Rhine (Holland).
Procopius, ca 550 AD, Byzantium historian, wrote: "The people of Britain are the English and Frisians".
From 450 to 785 AD the Frisians were far wandering seafarer's along the borders of the North Sea. (The Vikings of Scandinavia appeared later....700-1030).
In the 600's and 700's missionaries from Britain attempted to convert the Frisians. they accepted the Church of Rome in 1234.
Sources: 
Encyclopedia Brittanica, 9th. Ed., 1895 
Wells "Outline of History" 1922 
Blair's "Anglo-Saxon England" 1972 
Coon's "Races of Europe" 1939 
Coon, Ripley, and Beddoe "Races"
Larsens "History of Norway"
Note: The above text has been edited from an article by Robert Griffis Eidson that appeared in the Eidson Newsletter, number 14, October 1982.

http://www.nezperce.com/~gedison/eidson/pafg02.htm