Gaudon

Recorded as Gaudon, Vaudin, Vaudinet (France) and Vauden, Vaudin, Vaudon, Vaden, Vautin, (England) this is a French medieval surname. It is best described as locational from the former region of Gaudon now the departements of Vosges and Franch-Comte. Lccational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say surnames given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In so doing they took the name of their former home as easy identification. Given that spellings was at best rudimentary until about a century and half ago, and that local accents were and often still are, quite thick, the further people travelled the more likely it was that the surname gradually adopted a variant appearance. In France there were further problems caused by the civil war between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots) which raged for nearly two hundred years until 1760, and then the Revolution of 1792 when all religion was banned, the churches closed, and registers when found, burnt. With this surname we have been lucky to find early recordings and these include Claude Vaudin at Cirey sur Vezouse, Meuther et Moselle, on September 20th 1673, and In England Elizabeth Vaudin who married Francis Boytrell at St Nicholas Cloe Abbey, city of London, on May 8th 1735.