One Name Study

Jellybaby1

Has anyone made a one name study for a particular family? Just wondering how to go about it as I am at a loss where to start.

Hermy

I think I saw mention of this at the show in the RDS. What exactly is it Jelly?

KildareFan

From Guild of one name studies:
"Family historians generally focus their efforts on researching their own family trees, collecting and analysing data in order to find as much detail as possible on every branch, twig or tiny leaf. Others compile surname studies, which seek all occurrences, past and present, of a single surname, anywhere in the world."

Check out the Guild of One Name studies at http://one-name.org/what-is-a-one-name-study/

Generally it's only feasible where the surname is relatively rare....

Coolnabacky1873

KildareFan wrote: »

Generally it's only feasible where the surname is relatively rare....

Very true, especially if doing it by yourself. I did one for the craic from 2010-2012, Buggy Name History.

Jellybaby1

Well the name would be uncommon enough and I could actually choose one of four uncommon names with which my own family and my in-laws are blessed. I wondered if anyone ever managed to link their own family to another seemingly unrelated family with the same name. After many years' research I have come to a full stop with several trees. To continue would mean much frustration on my part as there are a couple of mysteries and still many brick walls. I considered continuing by researching one name and hopefully :rolleyes: discover a new link! Am I away with the fairies do you think? Or perhaps I am merely feeling a mite bored as nothing new has turned up for ages now.

Edit: Speaking of which, I just saw this on Dick Eastman's blog: http://blog.eogn.com/2014/11/10/announcement-the-surname-society/

KildareFan

what about one island studies? My great grandmother was born on an island off the west coast; I've ended up researching everyone who was ever born on the island as they were all intermarried. Trying to find which John Patrick James Michael Bridget Mary Anne belonged to which branch is a challenge. Like trying to untangle a ball of wool. Bit by bit I'm managing to put some order on the family links, but still a lot to do.

shanew

I've also got caught up in a sort-of one name study of Fitzsimon(s) in Co. Wicklow. Probably more a one county one surname study. They seem to split up fairly neatly into to three groups - southern group around Arklow/Wicklow town, those west of the Wicklow mountains around Blessington and my lot around Kilmacanogue/Bray.

duignanons

KildareFan's suggestion that you should visit the Guild of One-Studies website is very sensible - there's lots of information there, and you can check to see if a study of your surname has been registered with the society. My one-name study is registered with the Guild
Though it's normally recommended that you don't study a very common name, there are exceptions - a Smith (!) one-name study has recently been accepted.
You say that your name is relatively uncommon - a quick way of checking would be to see how many individuals of the name were enumerated in the 1901 census.
Though based in London, The Guild of One-Name Studies is an international organisation; there are 20+ members in Ireland.

BTW, the Surname Society mentioned on EOGN is *not* the same organisation as the Guild.

pinkypinky

Weird. I posted on this thread about an hour ago and the post is gone!

I'm sort of working on a one name study for a rare name in Ireland because I collected all examples I could find when I was trying to work out who was related to my ancestors and who wasn't. It's not rare in Scotland. Vaguely thinking of writing it up at some stage.

Coolnabacky1873

KildareFan wrote: »

what about one island studies?

That is a great idea. My maternal line is from an 'almost' island in the Wesht. A mix of genealogy, local history and folklore would be very interesting.

pinkypinky wrote: »

I'm sort of working on a one name study for a rare name in Ireland because I collected all examples I could find

A good research example for your website, maybe?

In general, if you have written up something and don't want to put it online, maybe thing about depositing a copy with the local history/genealogy section of the county library and any local history societies. Then it would benefit other researchers.

L1011

There is always a risk of these being considered authoritative once published which is a problem. I've both an inaccurate 1930s study in to one obscure name *and* a mostly inaccurate by omission only island study amongst the works I reference - luckily I know the problems with them! It's a huge amount of work but it's a way to leave a legacy of sorts

Coolnabacky1873

You raise a good point, that of genealogists not being critical enough of the sources we use. Too often we are happy to use them when the piece of information we want is contained within.

It's just as important to critique the publication/record/document. Who created it? Why did they created it? Are original documents cited? Now, I'm a bit of a citation junkie, but it is really important. Sadly, a lot of local history publications do not cite, as well meaning as the effort is to capture the local knowledge. Then, as you say, it becomes authoritative.

Jellybaby1

Agreed about the lack of citation. I have purchased an old family history book, self-published by the author, in a second hand bookshop. There are absolutely no references given so I never took it very seriously, but then the chap who wrote it up did so many years ago and was probably never trained how to do so. I'm sure he just did it to record his family as best he could but citation would have given him that edge had he been aware of it, then again maybe he knew but didn't want to bother!

Jellybaby1

duignanons wrote: »

KildareFan's suggestion that you should visit the Guild of One-Studies website is very sensible - there's lots of information there, and you can check to see if a study of your surname has been registered with the society. My one-name study is registered with the Guild
Though it's normally recommended that you don't study a very common name, there are exceptions - a Smith (!) one-name study has recently been accepted.
You say that your name is relatively uncommon - a quick way of checking would be to see how many individuals of the name were enumerated in the 1901 census.
Though based in London, The Guild of One-Name Studies is an international organisation; there are 20+ members in Ireland.

BTW, the Surname Society mentioned on EOGN is *not* the same organisation as the Guild.

I will indeed check up on the Guild. I checked the 1901 Census and there are approximately 300 persons there with my first choice of my family's names, 4,000 of another, 30 of another, and only around 10 of another.

pinkypinky

This thread has inspired me to get writing mine up. My rare surname is not registered and there's only 10 people on the 1911 with it.

KildareFan

I agree about being absolutely rigid about citations; there are other descendants from my island study who created family trees, but a lot of it doesn't stack up once you look at the records. My great grandmother was born on the island but the parish registers with her records were destroyed. She married out of the island and was overlooked by the other family historians. I'm using a variety of records including Griffiths, land rentals, baptismal and marriage registers, civil records, and the two censuses, petty session records, newspaper articles, passenger lists etc to sort out the families. I'll have to visit the local archives as well to check up on Workhouse records. I'm recording everything in excel at the moment writing up the findings as I go along. Something to keep me going in the winter nights ahead.

pedroeibar1

pinkypinky wrote: »

This thread has inspired me to get writing mine up. My rare surname is not registered and there's only 10 people on the 1911 with it.

Nor is my surname in the 'OneName', nor is it in any of the DNA sites (nor its variants.) Goes scurrying off to count heads in the 1911 census for his rare surname.....97! and 79 in 1901, about 20 families. I fold!:(:)
Where would one publish such a story/research (complete with footnotes/sources)?

pinkypinky

Well Coolnabacky1873 suggested I publish mine on my website, which seemed obvious once he'd said it! If I make it more academic in tone, I might consider a journal.

mickmackey1

As a hurling fan, I looked up the name Shefflin - and there are only three of them! Presumably his great-grandparents:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/results.jsp?searchMoreVisible=false&census_year=1911&surname=shefflin&firstname=&county19011911=&county1821=&county1831=&county1841=&county1851=&barony=&parish=&ward=&townland=&houseNumber=&familyId=&ded=&age=&sex=&search=Search&ageInMonths=&relationToHead=&religion=&education=&occupation=&marriageStatus=&yearsMarried=&birthplace=&nativeCountry=&language=&deafdumb=&causeOfDeath=&yearOfDeath=&familiesNumber=&malesNumber=&femalesNumber=&maleServNumber=&femaleServNumber=&estChurchNumber=&romanCatNumber=&presbNumber=&protNumber=&marriageYears=&childrenBorn=&childrenLiving=

Jellybaby1

mickmackey1 wrote: »

As a hurling fan, I looked up the name Shefflin - and there are only three of them! Presumably his great-grandparents:

Try different spellings. In 1901 there were 337 Shevlins and 379 in 1911. Also is there any chance any of the family might have entered their names in Irish? Is there any chance the family might have spelled it differently to Shefflin? In 1901 there were no Shefflins, in 1911 there were the three you say, one born in Monaghan, his wife born in Kilkenny and their son born American. Maybe the dad's parents didn't fill in a 1901 form in Monaghan. It would be intriguing to find out where the Shefflins came from. Keep us posted!

duignanons

Sounds to me as if several of you are already some way down the one-name path.

My suggestions for taking it further would be, in no particular order of merit: write a blog, set up a FaceBook group, start a Y-DNA project (has to be Y-DNA, for males only, to work), join a society for one-name studies, start a surname society for the name that you're studying / interested in.

Someone mentioned a one-island study - I know that there's a one-place study out there that might worth investigating.