The surname of ASHMORE was a locational name 'of Ashmore' a parish in County Dorset, five miles from Shaftesbury. The name was derived from the Old English 'aescmere' literally meaning the dweller by the lake with trees. Early records of the name mention Aisemare (without surname) listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1086. Essemera (without surname) was recorded in County Dorset in 1107. Ashemere (without surname) was documented in the year 1305 in the County of Cheshire. Edward Ashmore of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Robert Johannes and Anne Ashmore were married in London in 1584. Hugh Richardson and Mary Ashmore were married at St. Dionis, Backchurch, London in the year 1587. Anne Ashemore was buried at St. James's, Clerkenwell, London in 1695. Thomas Hind and Sarah Ashmore were married at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in the year 1773. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884.