John Little in 1871

Hi Alison,

While doing research on my own "Little" ancestors (who were in Ireland since the early 18th century) I did come across the census records for other Littles and was careful to try to delineate which Little families were clearly not related to us.

I do remember coming across a Richard/Richie/Ritchie Little who was listed as a glass bottle worker/engineer/craftsperson based in Dublin and with a Scottish birthplace.
I assume you've already trawled through those records 1901/1911 Irish census.

I would have to go back over the notes which I took but I am guessing Richard was son or first cousin or close relative of John.
Otherwise it would be a big coincidence given the same or very similar professions.
One could speculate that the elder Little came over to Ireland with that specific craft.
I wonder if there was some association between glass bottle crafts guilds and manufacturers in Scotland and Ireland and whether he was recruited or cherry picked for this skilled work.

The surname Little is particularly common in lowland Scots Border areas (often spelled Lyttle or indeed Liddle/Liddel).
There are some theories that the Scots version of the name came from the river Liddle which straddles part of those regions (eg, Dumfries/Galloway).
The Littles in Scotland were notably part of the so called Riding Clans who often took mercenary positions during the various wars between England and Scotland. Other surnames included Elliot and Beattie.
It is likely that a lot of Little/Lyttles in Northern Ireland were planted settlers who have this heritage.

It would be interesting to figure out the deeper ancestry of your grandfather as to whether he was a Scottish Little going back centuries or whether he was part of an Irish Little family who went to Scotland and returned when career opportunities opened up as Dublin became quite industrial and sucessful as a business location.

My own interest is in the Irish Littles - who apparently descend from an old Gaelic family in Fermanagh/Cavan/Monaghan O'Beaghain -> Beggan and Little. Also I am following a lead on a fascinating other source of the Little surname in Ireland due to a German Palatine immigrant, Wilhelm Klein who settled in Dublin/Leinster unlike the majority of Palatines who settled in Limerick/Wexford/Cork and Kerry.
Finally, there is still a fair possibility that there are Littles in Ireland who may be related to Petit , a Norman baron who was awarded huge tracts of land in Westmeath and Meath during the latter stages of the Norman conquest.
Anglicisation of surnames may conceal the origin.

I am hoping, in time to get a Y-DNA/genetic test done since there are a number of Little DNA studies and databases out there from the diaspora of Littles (either of Irish/English/Scottish/French/German origin).

Hope at least some of this is of use to you - even though perhaps not 100% relevant to your ancestor.

Hi Alison,

You have done some great research.
Establishing the information about patents in glass production and making the tie to your ancestors must be very rewarding.

There is the site below which shows distribution of Littles across UK.
The 1881 option is probably a better gauge of surname distributions.
It certainly sounds like Alloa is where your Littles were clustered.
I was on the cusp of buying a book about the Border Reivers/Fighting Littles and Armstrongs when I found out that our earlier origin wasn't from where I had assumed it might be.
So, I never got around to purchasing that book - but the history looked fascinating.

Here is the National Trust surname site - it really is more for trying to get affirmation that a surname had significant presence in one area or another (based on census data).

http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Surnames.aspx