Why not a gathering of the clan?

Although I think it looks and sounds very English - perhaps quintessentially so, a name redolent of the English countryside - my surname Melford is in fact quite rare. I've looked in vain for the name Melford on graves in churchyards, and on Rolls of Honour inside. It is never there. 

Nobody called Melford is ever in the news, nor ever once was, whether for good reasons or bad. 

No living Melford is famous for anything, so far as I know. There are celebrity families such as the Kardashians - even I have heard of them - but there is no dynasty of Melfords to rival them. 

Maybe it's because Melford is a bland and unremarkable surname. Certainly not the kind of stand-out professional name that a would-be stage entertainer or aspiring film star would adopt. But I like it, and although Melford wasn't the surname I was born with, but instead an acquired name, I have embraced it as my own. It's become part of my being, an aspect of my personality. And although I can't claim any blood affinity, I would still be delighted to meet another Melford, if ever such an encounter took place. 

Actually, it's not at all impossible to bring all the adult Melfords in the country together. The other day I Googled a list of all UK Melfords - an easy thing to do really - and found this:

As ever, click on the image to enlarge it. This seems to be a complete list of all the Melfords who can currently vote. So they must all be aged at least 18. Anyway it's a list containing 117 people with the same surname as mine. And it occurs to me that we could all get in touch. Indeed, should. What a wheeze it would be, to have a Gathering of the Clan! Surely we would all have stories to tell. 

It wouldn't matter if most of the married (or divorced, or widowed) female Melfords were, like me, born under another family name. We'd all have at least this one particular thing in common to bring us together. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if there weren't other connections too, perhaps to do with careers, or shared acquaintances. Certainly shared interests. 

Well, who knows, one of these other Melfords might read this post and set the ball rolling! 

And what would I actually do if it got going - a Grand Melford Convention at The Ritz in London, say, or at some posh country mansion? Why, attend of course, wherever the event was. It would be so intriguing to meet 116 other people who go under the same surname, and to find out what else we have in common.