The name Tarttelin is pretty uncommon. I have yet to go
somewhere and bump into a Tarttelin I haven't met before. I
am regularly asked if I have Italian or French parents. I
didn't get any conclusive information from my Dad about
it's origins, so when I saw someone at Wookey Hole
advertising his surname researching services, I set him
onto our name.
I wound up at Wookey Hole during my Honeymoon, and as my
wife Freya had only just acquired the new surname, it
seemed appropriate to find out more about it. We didn't get
any immediate feedback, other than it was nice to have a
challenge, rather than just another Smith or Jones.
After a little more than 3 months, and a couple of calls to
find out whether he had forgotten or just given up, we got
a plaque back with the details. According to him, the
surname originates from the parish of Tarleton in Ormskirk
(a few miles North of Liverpool). Over the centuries, the
spelling has been copied down wrong, until the name morphed
into Tarttelin, with Joseph Tarttelin being the first known
registered Tarttelin.