Genealogy Chat

Hi, I'm a little bit confused over these one name searches. Do researchers find the names of people in their own family tree or do they find anybody with this particular name in a certain area...to try to fit them together at some time? Any tips would be very welcome. Thanks, Pam Steward.

They just follow one name with all the different lines that mostly never link up which each other. Jacquie

actually , the whole point of a one name study IS to link them up

Thanks to Jacqueline and Jess. At least I understand now. Kind regards, Pam

Before you can be accepted as the registered researcher with the Guild of One Name Studies, a person has to have a vast amount of information about their surname and once accepted there is an obligation to share the information with people who write for help. The G.O.O.N.S. site explains more fully. The researcher may have hundreds of certificates, Wills, Parish register entries, etc. bought with the aim of tracing links between the possible family groups. The interest can be world wide.

I've found myself doing an unofficial One Name Study. One of the surnames on my tree is rare and from one source, so I know all descendants must be related somehow. When I got frustrated with my own research on that name because I hit a brick wall I started collecting examples of the name. I then contacted other researchers and we formed an online group. There are now over 40 of us hunting. Some of them have found good links to each other and they are getting closer to my ancestors but we haven't sorted it all out yet. It's huge fun though and I've made some very good friends. I expect a number of One Name Studies started out like that. It's interesting to see how the name is distributed and to see if any particular occupation is more common than others. But I must admit I'm not sure I'd see the point for a name with more than one origin where people aren't going to be related.

Susan I am helping with a study too, although it is registered. I got drawn into it because I found the right surname in the right area but couldn't see the link, - so you write it all down incase it fits in later. Several of us are doing the same and have made some links. There are still family groups not connected but I was amazed when I first met one of the fellow researchers. She looks more like my sister than I do. ....... No link found yet, but we're working on it !

I belong to a one name study society. They have collected such a lot of stuff it has been really helpful to my research. In return I have been able to send they copies of certificates for their databse. Anne

I was interested in doing a one name study for one of my surnames but the GOONS have quite strict criteria and I don't hold enough info. I know you have to at least have the GRO details for the BMDs for all occurances of the surname (and variants) in England and Wales. I had only got them for Yorkshire, where the name is most common.

I too have found myself doing a one-name study of my own, mainly because I have a brickwall and thought if I could sneak behind and come up on it from the rear, so to speak.... I now have over 5000 names, many of which DO link up to an original ancestor. I have also discovered that 'accepted information' that the Irish branch is not connected to the English branch, is in fact, probably wrong - I have found evidence that an English Holden was granted lands in Ireland in 1202!!!! None of this stuff appears on my GR tree, or indeed on my offline tree. Conversely, I have had some wonderful information from GOONS on another branch of my tree. Olde Crone

My unofficial one name study started because I could not determine one generations families, due to same first name patterns it has grown from there. I do do not have quite enough info to join G.O.O.N.S but hope to very soon. It too has become worldwide and boy did my lot know how to travel even in the 1800's!!!

What's the difference between a name grabber and a one name study? (This is a serious question by the way, even if it sounds like the sart of a dreadful joke involving light bulbs and social workers.) Jill p.s. I've got a sort of one name study on MOCOCK simply because I began collecting all mention of names when I realised that my grandfather was one of 7, his father one of 12 and the siblings all seemed to breed like rabbits too so I reckoned that all the other MOCOCKs (and there aren't THAT many) must be linked back there somewhere ... still looking but hey! I think you can join GOONS but not become 'fully-fledged' member until you can offer worldwide service ... so even if you only have local info you should be able to start.

If you belong to the Goons (which I don't as I'm only interested in Skillings who originate from Norfolk and I only include variant spellings at certain periods) you are under the obligation to SHARE information. Name grabbers are really only interested in one-way traffic. Mine is a single tree, with only a single branch I can't tie in as yet with every holder descended from a man born in the 1720s. If you are doing a one name study, you will have a lot of Williams (or in my case, Edmunds) so it is sometimes difficult to see everybody as a real person, but each time someone new joins this site, I can scare them witless by knowing their great-granny's name when they may not, and linking them to me, often with the connection only being in the 1700s.

I belong to a surname interest group. Our problem is that we have gone back beyond the parish records. We know details of the family from wills, landownership ect. but can't link a couple of generations. In our case we are only interested in Cliffords with links to North Gloucestershire or their descendents.

Would be great if we could have a specific area on this site for ONS - it's frustrating when you ask people for info on their names and they either don't respond or don't know - as someone else put that bit of the tree together etc. I am always happy to share info on MOCOCK but if there was a place on here to store that info electronically - it would be of benefit to others as well. I suppose I will have to put them all on a spreadsheet and organise a website or something. Good thing I have a computer literate son at home!! Jill

The difference between a one name study and a name grabber, is that one name studies are backed by research and named sources - fact, in other words. Name grabbing is taking without ever doing any research of your own.And never bothering to check whether the information is correct or whether someone has made up some fantasy person. Olde Crone