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The Mitchell / Michell surname with its variations has several origins.
The most common two are:-
Mitchell. This can be derived from "MUCH": from Middle English MUCHE (from MUCHEL, large, much - from Old English MYCEL, large in size or quantity)*.
Early church registers often show the name as Muchell.
Remember "Much" the Miller's son as Robin Hoods right hand man?
"Michell" is usually derived from the French Michel (Michael in English) which is derived from the Hebrew "Mikhael", meaning literally
'who is like God'.
Some people who spell their surname Mitchell today belong to families who anglicized the older form Michell a hundred years or so ago.
I have tried to use the spelling as it was at the time although sometimes a family would use both spellings.
I started my research, as most do, by working on my paternal line.
I was fortunate because my family never travelled more than 6 miles, in over 400 years, which made the research easy. (My son has now broken the mould and moved to Crawley, Sussex where he and his partner have 3 fine boys.)
My own Mitchells originated in Great Torrington, North Devon, where they were weavers. There was a large woollen trade in this area in the early 1600's.
Some moved out into the villages where they became Ag Lab's, moving from village to village and farm to farm as they had to do to find work.
The families mostly stayed as labourers and farm labourers (with the wives and daughters working at home making gloves for the large glove-making industry in Torrington) until my grandfather stepped up a rung and for a short while
became an insurance agent.
He went on to found the business "Mitchell's Transport" and many who remember the "old" days in North Devon will remember the green lorries which delivered seed and fertiliser to the farms and take away grain, cattle, hay and straw.
Having sorted out my own Mitchell's, I noticed another nest of Mitchells in nearby Beaford.
I researched this line back being sure that it would join up with mine at some point in the past, it never did. Both lines are back to pre-1600 with no sign of a tie-up or similarity in the Christian names used.
Having found there were more Mitchells in the world besides my own, I slowly expanded my area down to mid Devon and then county wide.
Unfortunately many families didn't sit still like my lot and moved around. I had to research Cornwall as there was much mixing between the counties.
This was where I discovered the Michell's. At first I thought it was just the way they spelt it "out West" and they were all the same as me.
Then I encountered the research of Ken Michell in Australia and Donovan Michell in Cornwall.
They had successfully traced their Michell lines back to Normandy France in 940 AD.
The members of this line first came over with William Duke of Normandy (William the Conqueror) in 1066 and were given lands in England as a reward for services rendered, so to speak.
I have been collecting data from every reliable source and entering it into a database.
I have not displayed all my information as sometimes it only amounts to perhaps 20 or 30 people or perhaps I'm not happy with the quality of the information or my deductions from this data.
So even if you are unable to find your West Country Mitchell/Michell on these pages, do call me as I may still be able to help.
If you do connect, please use the "contact us" button on the main left hand menu as I would wish to encourage you to add your bit to the tree and perhaps even supply pictures that only the direct descendants can supply.
* From Webster's New World Dictionary
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