In January 2009, the 1911 census for England & Wales was put online at www.1911census.co.uk Some extracts can be seen here.

What Information do I hold on the surname and it's main variants?

Some surname variants are SAGROTT, SEGROTT, SEGRODT and possibly SECRET(T). I registered a one-name study for these names with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 1995. There is also a bulletin board for the name on Ancestry.com. I have a number of family trees relating to Sagrott in Norfolk, London and Essex, Segrott from Ousden, Suffolk who settled in the Lambeth area of London, and Seagroatt in Norwich, Norfolk and in the Stepney & Poplar area of East London. Most of these I can supply as GEDCOM files or narrative family trees (Register Report style - as below). A number of these lines have settled in North America and Australia. Copies of any trees that you hold will be most welcome. I have a tree of SECRET in Kirkley, Suffolk supplied by Caroline Smith.

If you are seeking a birth, marriage or death in England or Wales from 1837, you can search my extensive extracts from the GRO indexes by clicking here
(Tip: There are many births and some deaths where a forename was not registered. These appear in the Indexes as Male or Female.) There are gaps for some years which you may need to supplement from FreeBMD or other sites. I also have English extracts from some parish registers, census returns, wills, probate and military records.

Family Trees:

Family Tree of the Seagroatts of Poplar
The Secret(t)s of Norfolk & Suffolk (Surlingham, Hethersett, Gt Yarmouth & Lowestoft)
The Segrodts of Bury St Edmunds & Cowlinge
The Segrotts of Suffolk & London
The Sagrotts of Stoke Ferry & London

To view an indexed family tree of the Seagroatts as a series of web pages click here.
To download a GEDCOM file of the descendants of Roger & Elizabeth Seagroatt click here. This also contains unrelated SAGROTT & SEGROTT families from Stoke Ferry/Islington & Suffolk respectively.

Possible Surname Origins

The origins of the surname are uncertain, although there are several traditions that they came from the Continent, perhaps France, Germany or the Netherlands. My own theory is that the name derives from the Dutch/Flemish words See, meaning a lake and Groot, meaning large. Thus the name may first have been given to a person who lived beside a lake or stretch of water. The name SEEGROOT can be found in the parish registers of Krefeld on the River Rhine ca1700. In England the name is found from about 1540 in East Anglia, first around Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast (where SECRETT is also found), then inland around Norwich, Newmarket and down into Suffolk around Ousden. The variant SAGROTT appears to have originated in Stoke Ferry, Norfolk. There were also a few occurrences of SEGRODT in the City of London ca1680. The SEGROTTs came from Suffolk to London ca1800, and I have been unable to link them to our Seagroatt line. Heraldic records show no grants of Arms. Many followed the trade of Cordwainers (Shoemakers) in early times.

Links to other family members:

The American Seagroatts are represented by Donald Seagroatt in Texas who is descended from Thomas Seagroatt born 13 October 1840 at 2 Hale Street, Poplar in East London, a son of Thomas (bn 1813) and Sarah. Thomas Jnr. emigrated to the United States about 1879 with his wife Ann and children. He was listed in the US 1880 census at Flushing, New York as a Boatman. Two of his brothers, George Allen and Henry Joseph emigrated to Australia where there are many descendants.

Mrs Janice Bowes who lives at Andover, Hants. has done much research on her husband's Seagroatt line which descends from Joseph William 1848-1924, a brother the Thomas mentioned above.

Patrick Holland in Perth, Australia is descended from the SEGROTT line which he has traced back to Arnold Segrott ca1663 at Wickhambook, Suffolk who died 1736 at nearby Ousden. One branch of the family settled in Lambeth, Surrey in the last century. Patrick has researched the name for many years & has contacts with many family members all over the world.

Mrs Gillian Glenn-Sansum Of Peterborough, Cambs is researching the Sagrott name. Her maternal grandmother was Ada Charlotte Sagrott born in Islington, London in 1898. Ada is a descendant of Arnold Segrott born in Wickhambrook, Suffolk in the mid 1600's.

Caroline Smith is tracing her SECRET(T) ancestry in Kirkley, Lowestoft, Suffolk and in Norwich, and has traced back to a Robert Secret who married Elizabeth Thurling ca1815, and had children Bathsheba 1816, George (her direct ancestor) 1817/8 & Eliza Ann 1820. She would like to hear from anyone tracing the surname SECRET(T). It now appears that this family originated with Gossnul SEAGROTT in Surlingham near Norwich 1717 & may be linked to our SEAGROATTS in Norwich ca1740. There may also be a link to Anthony GOSNOLD who married Christian SEAGROTE in 1608 at Icklingham near Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk. From the will of Anthony 1639 it is known that Christian had a brother Roger SEGRODT at Bury.

Marcelo Clark has a very useful site devoted to SEGROTT ancestry, which also includes a discussion forum. Read about the history of  Secrett's Farm at Kew, London. In 1908 Mr Fredk A Secrett purchased 20 acres of land in Kew with a £1000 loan from his father, a Builder. Salad, leguminous crops, early cauliflower & sea kale were the first produce to be harvested. He sold his produce from a stand at Brentford Market. The farm is now at Milford, Surrey. Secretts were the first farm to grow wild rocket in the UK. (the family are originally from Surlingham in Norfolk ca1717, having settled in Ealing ca1850- his mother was Elizabeth Ann).

NEWS: Patrick Holland in Perth, Australia runs a Facebook group for our surnames, and is also doing a DNA project. Initial results confirm a genetic link between the SEAGRO(A)TT and SEGROTT lines. He writes "The issue of red hair as a phenotypical marker in Segrott ancestry seems to have some credance. The other day, I came across the expression, " Seg rodt " which in Norwegian means, " himself red " . Its easy to see how this could have become, " Segrodt " and furthermore, the Y-DNA haplogroup to which the Segrotts we've  tested so far belong to Haplogroup I1 which has Scandinavian origins. viz. " I1 Anglo-Saxon [I1-AS] has its peak gradient in the Germanic lowland countries: northern Germany [Saxons], Denmark [Angles], the Netherlands [Frisians], as well as England and old Norman regions of France. "  So the surname may have started in Norway as people saying , "Phil Seg rodt " , when referring to Phil the red haired one." P.S. My wife has red hair, and fair hair with blue eyes ran in her Seagroatt family.

Also visit my Guild Profile on the Seagroatt study.

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This page was last updated on 11 September, 2011