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CRAVEN Family History

This interesting surname is of English locational origin from the district of Craven in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The placename is recorded as "Crave" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and probably derives from the Welsh "craf" meaning garlic. During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job seeking was becoming more common, people often took their former placename as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. The surname was first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below), and Agnes de Craven and Johannes de Craven, appear in the Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire, dated 1372)...