Family name UK distibution

peanut

here's an interesting way to while away a few minutes whilst having a cuppa
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/default.aspx

It will give you the distribution of surnames in both 1881 and 1981
great fun.
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boybiker

Owww There are only about three families with my surname in England so its not very exciting. :?

gert_lush

wow how coooooolll

my relatives and distant relatives dont seem to be particularly adventurous, just seemed to have moved slightll closer to the sea!

peanut

boybiker wrote:

Owww There are only about three families with my surname in England so its not very exciting. :?

binladen by any chance ?

boybiker

My surname comes from Jersey I am told so not all that adventurous
There maybe more than 3 families but it's LePoidevin, you can call me Andrew if you must

peanut

boybiker wrote:

My surname comes from Jersey I am told so not all that adventurous
There maybe more than 3 families but it's LePoidevin, you can call me Andrew if you must

Yes I can see how that might be a tad rare in the UK
My family name was formerly French brought over by the Conquerer apparently
D'Erley

boybiker

I can see its going to cause trouble when I am wearing the yellow jersey on the TdF, channel 4 commentators wont know if I am English of French :roll: :roll:

DavidBelcher

peanut wrote:

[My family name was formerly French brought over by the Conquerer apparently
D'Erley

Same here - Belcher is originally a Norman name. Surprised to see that in both years on the site, the biggest concentration was in Oxfordshire or thereabouts - I'd always assumed it was largely a West Midlands surname as there are a lot of us distributed around Wolverhampton and Walsall.

David

peanut

DavidBelcher wrote:

Same here - Belcher is originally a Norman name. Surprised to see that in both years on the site, the biggest concentration was in Oxfordshire or thereabouts - I'd always assumed it was largely a West Midlands surname as there are a lot of us distributed around Wolverhampton and Walsall.

David

not sure how they work out the distribution actually. I assumed it is on numbers but apparently not ??? I read the site back to front but still could not get to the bottom of how they work out distribution.
Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc All through the Industrial rev my ancestors travelled back and forth between Shoreditch London (docks) and Lancs (docks) the men were all stevedores.This meant that offspring in the same families show up in both places during census :roll:

SunWuKong

It had zero in 1981 for me which isn't true because we were here then. There's only a few us too.

peanut

SunWuKong wrote:

It had zero in 1981 for me which isn't true because we were here then. There's only a few us too.

Apparently there needs to be a minimum of 100 for a name to be included. I guess it would be difficult to show the UK distribution of 3 people lol
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/help/Help.htm

Stewie Griffin

According to this we have been breeding like rabbits and leaving London . Except Im childless (Commitmentophobia :roll: ) and still live in London. Im letting the side down.

peanut

Stewie Griffin wrote:

According to this we have been breeding like rabbits and leaving London . Except Im childless (Commitmentophobia :roll: ) and still live in London. Im letting the side down.

you may THINK you're childless Stewie you may get a knock on the door and a nasty shock one day

peanut

well I think I have got to the bottom of how the distribution is assessed and shown. I don't profess to understand the logic entirely but this is quoted from the site


` For the purpose of this map a highest 'concentration' means the postal area(s) which, for the name(s) you have chosen, have the highest frequency per million names.

This means that the postal areas are graded according to the relative number of electors with your name, not according to the absolute number. Were we to have coloured postal areas by the absolute numbers, then a postal area such as Birmingham, which has over a million electors, would appear purple on almost every map simply because it has by far the highest numbers of electors overall.'

Stewie Griffin

peanut wrote:

Stewie Griffin wrote:

According to this we have been breeding like rabbits and leaving London . Except Im childless (Commitmentophobia :roll: ) and still live in London. Im letting the side down.

you may THINK you're childless Stewie you may get a knock on the door and a nasty shock one day

Oh Jebus please no. A lovely French girl I used to see about 10 years ago is the only one that worries me. However, we didnt even know each others surnames so, hopefully :P

il_principe

No hits for me at all in 1991.

Rarer than a white Rhino!

iainment

jashburnham wrote:

No hits for me at all in 1991.

Rarer than a white Rhino!

None for me then as well!! Exclusive club methinks.

DavidBelcher

peanut wrote:

Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc

I searched for Jones (Mum's maiden name) and there is a noticeable trend between the two sets of data - as the country became still more industrialised there seems to be an eastward spread of Joneses out of Wales and through the Midlands, the concentration thinning out as the distance from the border increases.

David

peanut

DavidBelcher wrote:

peanut wrote:

Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc

I searched for Jones (Mum's maiden name) and there is a noticeable trend between the two sets of data - as the country became still more industrialised there seems to be an eastward spread of Joneses out of Wales and through the Midlands, the concentration thinning out as the distance from the border increases.

David

that'l be migration to work boyo won't it I bet if we looked for major wworks like the woolwich tunnel and railway tunnels lines etc in the 1880's we would find migration trends following work availabilty like the cotton mills etc
Whole towns were built around various industries

iainment

peanut wrote:

DavidBelcher wrote:

peanut wrote:

Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc

I searched for Jones (Mum's maiden name) and there is a noticeable trend between the two sets of data - as the country became still more industrialised there seems to be an eastward spread of Joneses out of Wales and through the Midlands, the concentration thinning out as the distance from the border increases.

David

that'l be migration to work boyo won't it I bet if we looked for major wworks like the woolwich tunnel and railway tunnels lines etc in the 1880's we would find migration trends following work availabilty like the cotton mills etc
Whole towns were built around various industries

Would a foot tunnel really have that much effect?

DavidBelcher

iainment wrote:

peanut wrote:

DavidBelcher wrote:

peanut wrote:

Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc

I searched for Jones (Mum's maiden name) and there is a noticeable trend between the two sets of data - as the country became still more industrialised there seems to be an eastward spread of Joneses out of Wales and through the Midlands, the concentration thinning out as the distance from the border increases.

David

that'l be migration to work boyo won't it I bet if we looked for major wworks like the woolwich tunnel and railway tunnels lines etc in the 1880's we would find migration trends following work availabilty like the cotton mills etc
Whole towns were built around various industries

Would a foot tunnel really have that much effect?

Maybe Peanut is thinking of the Thames Tunnel built by the Brunels (originally a foot tunnel but now carries the East London underground line)? That was a mammoth feat in its day, and construction would've been very labour intensive with little use of machinery for digging or lining it. The trend of "industrial migration" within the UK isn't just a Victorian thing, either - a lot of Scots moved down to Northamptonshire in the inter-war years to take up jobs at the then-new Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks in Corby.

David

iainment

DavidBelcher wrote:

iainment wrote:

peanut wrote:

DavidBelcher wrote:

peanut wrote:

Done properly it would be very interesting and revealing about family migration in relation to trades professions and work etc

I searched for Jones (Mum's maiden name) and there is a noticeable trend between the two sets of data - as the country became still more industrialised there seems to be an eastward spread of Joneses out of Wales and through the Midlands, the concentration thinning out as the distance from the border increases.

David

that'l be migration to work boyo won't it I bet if we looked for major wworks like the woolwich tunnel and railway tunnels lines etc in the 1880's we would find migration trends following work availabilty like the cotton mills etc
Whole towns were built around various industries

Would a foot tunnel really have that much effect?

Maybe Peanut is thinking of the Thames Tunnel built by the Brunels (originally a foot tunnel but now carries the East London underground line)? That was a mammoth feat in its day, and construction would've been very labour intensive with little use of machinery for digging or lining it. The trend of "industrial migration" within the UK isn't just a Victorian thing, either - a lot of Scots moved down to Northamptonshire in the inter-war years to take up jobs at the then-new Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks in Corby.

David

That's nowhere near Woolwich though (in London terms). In East/South East London the tunnels I'm aware of are Rotherhithe, Blackwall - both road, and Greenwich and Woolwich - both foot, and the tube tunnel for the East London Line.

peanut

well spotted yes it I mean whichever tunnel was dug by Brunel and his Dad sorry being lazy should have checked but I knew some young whipper-snapper would up and correct me No excuse Brunel is my hero and I have loads of DVD's on his life and work

Took many many years and thousands of labourers as did many of the big ships and the London underground and the sewage system etc

vbc

My grandfather added an 'E' to the end of our family name as there was another miner with exactly the same name who was claiming my granddad's wages at the pit where he worked.

Ironically, just such a simple change made our surname much more common than it originally was in the Nottinghamshire area. My mother's maiden name is also quite specific to the east midlands area.

Interesting.

peanut

vbc wrote:

My grandfather added an 'E' to the end of our family name as there was another miner with exactly the same name who was claiming my granddad's wages at the pit where he worked.

Ironically, just such a simple change made our surname much more common than it originally was in the Nottinghamshire area. My mother's maiden name is also quite specific to the east midlands area.

Interesting.

yes this happened a lot. At the time of the census scibes would simply write down names as they sounded phoneticaly. Many names were changed inadvertantly. Some of my ancestors couldn't read and write so witnessed marriage certs with a cross. They would not have know how there own family name looked or was spelt.
Myfamily name was spelt ending in ley and ly missing out the E

DavidBelcher

peanut wrote:

No excuse Brunel is my hero and I have loads of DVD's on his life and work

Have you got the Penguin paperback biography of IKB by L.T.C. Rolt? If not, I highly recommend it, likewise "Victorian Engineering" by the same author and with similar themes. Possibly both out of print now but crop up regularly in 2nd-hand bookshops, Oxfam branches, etc.

David

peanut

DavidBelcher wrote:

peanut wrote:

No excuse Brunel is my hero and I have loads of DVD's on his life and work

Have you got the Penguin paperback biography of IKB by L.T.C. Rolt? If not, I highly recommend it, likewise "Victorian Engineering" by the same author and with similar themes. Possibly both out of print now but crop up regularly in 2nd-hand bookshops, Oxfam branches, etc.

David

No thanks I'll look out for it. I have a good book by Angus Buchannon.
Its about time I looked the DVD's out again and also Longitude and Station X
I am that anorak :roll:

meenaghman

For those who don't know (and who are interested in Genealogy and have Irish forebears) the reason Ireland or Northern Ireland can't be mapped is because all the census records from 1821-1891 were all destroyed or lost. Some Pulped to make paper in War, some because of fire in 4courts in Dublin during Irish Civil war in 1922.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/help/history.html
which makes tracing relatives in Ireland very difficult unless your family can be traced to gentry. So for the most part one is dependent on civil registration where surname may or may not be written correctly and parish records which may or may not exist, and in general for catholics only go back as far as 1828 (catholic emancipation) although some are earlier.
Of course once you get back to 1800s the surname iand geographic spread in rural ireland is very closely coupled so whole parishes are populated by people with the same surname