Find your name

[altariel]

communicator linked to this site (very busy), which lets you see the geographical spread of your surname across Great Britain recently (1998) and in 1881.

Both my own surname (McCormack) and my mother's maiden name (Towey) are given as Irish Celtic names (no surprise). With McCormack, the geographical spread is fairly much as I'd expected, predominantly in Scotland and the north-west, with pockets of distribution in London and the north-east. (Although nobody from my family was contributing to this distribution in 1881.) I seem to be holding the side up for McCormacks in East Anglia.

With Towey - the maps are very bare! Some pockets in south east Lancashire and Notts. and Staffs., and around Hull in the 1880s (again, nobody from my direct family contributing); and the map in 1998 shows a similar pattern of concentration in Lancashire and southwards, around Manchester and Stoke (my mother was born in Manchester). The Humber Toweys went into a decline. (None of my direct family are contributing to this at all: my mother was one of five sisters, and the rest of her father's family is in the US. Sometimes I think I should change my surname.)

As for my grandmothers, the Kavanaghs (Irish Celtic) follow a similar pattern of Irish distribution (London, north west and north east, Scotland), but concentrated around Liverpool and Cumbria (?!) in the 1880s. Some spread out in the later map - what is going on in Cumbria?! The McGurks (yes, another Irish Celtic name) are not very well distributed in the 1880s: mainly in the north east around Durham and some bits of Scotland. These patterns are strengthened, spreading into the nearby areas by the 1990s, and with some presence in the north west. Again, I don't think there's anyone from my family contributing to the distribution in the 1880s, but I know less about when those branches of my family came here.

I guess it largely bears out what I already knew or could have guessed but - statistics, yay! I got some genealogical software for Christmas, so I'll plug this information into that.

Comments

[hafren.livejournal.com]

The Humber Toweys went into a decline.

Collectively? Did they see something nasty in the woodshed?

Fascinating site. Think I'll have a go at my Neils and Magennises.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Did they see something nasty in the woodshed?

Either that, or they were all daughters.

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link. Pity the map didn't include Northern Ireland, but my maternal forebears were long gone from there by 1881, so I'm not sure why I was looking. Well, curiosity, yes...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Do you know when they left? After the Famine?

[jomacmouse.livejournal.com]

[Googles start of Famine] Not long before I think. Can't be certain, but I think they were aboard the various vessels taking them southward by 1845. But the relevant genealogical info is 100 miles away from me at the present time.

[dolamrothdame.livejournal.com]

Apparently there have never been any Greenleeses in Britain-if I come over to visit you, the island will undoubtedly plunge into the ocean a la Numenor. Evanses, however, are for some reason thickly packed into this little western region....

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Evanses, however, are for some reason thickly packed into this little western region....

Heh! I'm really surprised there were no Greenleeses - I wonder if there any variations on the spelling.

Don't sink Britain! I hate getting wet!

[pretty-poodle.livejournal.com]

I did a search for "Mouser" and although there's no one now, there were a few people with that last name (and all it's many spellings) in this little part of Britan in 1881! lol... I didn't try Luna (my mother's maiden name) because I think that's hoping just a little too much... Haha, maybe they'll start a Spanish/Irish/German people's name finder one day. :D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It would be really interesting to see the spread of surnames in the US - but I bet setting up a site to do that would be years of work!