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The dempster Surname

dempster Name Meaning and History

  1. Scottish, Manx, and English: occupational name for a judge or arbiter of minor disputes, from Old English dem(e)stre, a derivative of the verb demian ‘to judge or pronounce judgement’. Although this was originally a feminine form of the masculine demere, by the Middle English period the suffix -stre had lost its feminine force, and the term was used of both sexes. The surname is not common in England, where the term was early replaced by Anglo-Norman French juge (see Judge), but relatively frequent in Scotland, where until 1747 every laird of a barony could have certain offenses within his territory tried by his dempster, and on the Isle of Man, where deemsters also played an important part in the administration of justice.
  2. Irish (especially County Down): as 1, but also occasionally used instead of Dempsey.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
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The dempster name in History

A unique volume of fascinating facts, statistics and commentary following the dempster family name as far back in history as possible.

dempster Family Facts

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Distribution of dempster Families in the US in 1920
Number of dempster families
 25-47
 9-24		 1-8
 0
Compiled by Ancestry.com from the 1920 US Federal Census records

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Year

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The information for this map came from Ancestry.com’s US Federal Census Collection.
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More resources for your dempster family history

Dempster message board


Threads: 98 - Messages: 252
ThreadAuthorReplies
Dempsters in Ireland gingercat77 21
Dempster Family bnanderson_1 1
Margaret Dempster CHarvey0770 2
dempster/carberry marriage verenelli 8
Dempster xxb1caez01 13
Annie Dempster & Martin Trotter, New Cumnock, Ayr, Scotland cbackhoe 1
Dempster Mary (Morrison) Forsythe 17
Alexander Dempster 1815 LindaSemple79 5
DEMPSTER & MORRISON, Morgan Co. Ohio, 1850 Census Carlene Morrison 3
James Dempster Record KatieRennie 1
Viewing 1-10 of 98 |  Go to the full board

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