Vol 9 Issue 3 July September 2006 - One-name studies ...one-name.org/journal/pdfs/vol9-3.pdf · Vol...

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Full report and pictures of the Guild�s 27th Annual Conference

Unusual forenames and mortalityStarting a DNA Study

Box G, 14 Charterhouse BuildingsGoswell Road, London EC1M 7BA

Tel: 0800 011 2182E-mail: [email protected]: www.one-name.org

Registered as a charity in England and Wales No. 802048

PresidentDerek A Palgrave MA FRHistS FSG

Vice-PresidentsPeter GoodallErnest HamleyJohn HebdenPeter Towey

Guild information

SalesAS well as Guild publications, theSales Manager has a supply of Jour-nal folders, ties, lapel badges andback issues of the Journal. Theaddress is:

Howard Benbrook7 Amber HillCamberleySurreyGU15 1EBEngland

E-mail enquiries to: [email protected]

ForumTHIS online discussion forum isopen to any member with access toe-mail. You can join the list bysending a message with your mem-bership number to:

[email protected] e-mail a message to the forum,send it to:

[email protected]

Regional RepresentativesA LIST of Regional Representativesof the Guild in a number of UKcounties and overseas can be foundon the inside back cover of thisJournal. If you are interested inbecoming a Regional Rep, pleasecontact the Regional Representa-tives Co-ordinator, Sandra Turner(address and phone number on theinside back cover).

The Journal of One-Name Studies ispublished quarterly by the Guild ofOne-Name Studies and printed byFlexpress Ltd, 5 Saxby St, Leicester

ISSN 0262-4842' Journal of One-Name Studies

Guild CommitteeThe Committee consists of the

Officers, plus the following:

Howard Benbrook Rod ClayburnPeter Copsey

Barbara Harvey Roy Rayment

Ken TollSandra Turner

Steven Whitaker

Bookstall & Sales ManagerHoward BenbrookForum ManagerSharon Symons

Regional Reps Co-ordinatorSandra Turner

Website ManagerPaul Millington

SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMENExecutive Peter WalkerMarketing Kirsty Gray

Seminar Dominic Johnson

GUILD OFFICERS

CHAIRMANPeter Walker 24 Bacons DriveCuffleyHertfordshireEN6 4DU 01707 873778

[email protected]

VICE-CHAIRMANPaul Millington58 Belmont StreetWorcesterWorcestershireWR3 8NN01905 745217

[email protected]

SECRETARYKirsty Gray11 Brendon CloseTilehurst, ReadingBerkshire RG30 6EA0118 941 4833

[email protected]

REGISTRARRoger GoacherSpringwoodFurzefield RoadEast GrinsteadW Sussex RH19 2EF01342 326663

[email protected]

TREASURERCliff Kemball168 Green LaneChislehurstKent BR7 6AY0208 467 8865

[email protected]

EDITORRoy Stockdill6 First AvenueGarston, WatfordHerts WD25 9PZ01923 893735

[email protected]

6 Why should unusual forenames be associated with a high mortality rate in infancy? � COVER STORYDAVID MELLOR finds a strange phenomenon in his Heppenstall One-Name Study

8 Some tips on establishing a DNA Project for your one-name study � COVER STORYFinal part of SUSAN MEATES’ special series on DNA Projects

11 Webwatch on Curious Fox, a curious website but an under-used resource � COVER STORYKEN TOLL looks at a lesser known website but one for useful contacts

14 Centre page spread of pictures from the Guild’s 27th Annual Conference16 Conference report on a successful weekend in Staffordshire � COVER STORY

All the news from the Conference and AGM by STEVEN WHITAKER

13 Next issue of the Journal � special announcement 18 Methodist archives, cotton industry and migrant workers at Manchester Seminar19 New FONS online surname indexes20 Some comments from the Treasurer � Seminars update21 How many requests for a Marriage Challenge?25 New developments in Guild Libraries � Proposal for a Guild Probate Index26 Winners of the Guild Awards for Websites, Profiles and One-Name Publications

4 From the Chairman�s keyboard PETER WALKER22 A View From The Bookstall HOWARD BENBROOK24 Registrar�s Notes ROGER GOACHER26 The Last Word ROY STOCKDILL27 Complete list of Regional Representatives

3

MAIN ARTICLES

GUILD REPORTS � NEWS � EVENTS

REGULARS

ARTICLES, letters and other contributions are welcomed from members,especially accompanied by illustrations, and should be sent to the Editor.Publication dates will normally be the first day of January, April, July andOctober.

Copyright of material is to the Editor and Publishers of the Journal of One-Name Studies and the author. No material may be reproduced in part or inwhole without the prior permission of the publishers.

The views expressed in the Journal are those of individual contributors andare not necessarily those of the Committee of the Guild of One-Name Studies.

The distribution list for this Journal, and the information in the RegisterUpdate, is based on the information held in the Guild database on the first ofthe month preceding the issue date.

Volume 9 Issue 3 July�September 2006

4 Journal of One-Name Studies, July�September 2006

Guild AGMat Yarnfield

hears upbeatreport on

our activities

NOTHER Guild year has started and this is my second term asyour Chairman. The AGM and Conference at Yarnfield were agreat success and those present at the AGM heard me givean upbeat report on the state of Guild activities covering...

� Membership� Registration� Guild governance� Seminars� Regional Representatives� Bookstall� Journal and the Production Manager� Communications� Web-based activities, including Profiles, Archives and the Marriage Index� Guild Forum� WARP� Guild Marriage Challenge� e-Library� 1837online discounts and lookups� Wiki, or Guild Knowledge Store� DNA � Contacts with academiaI accompanied the report with

a Powerpoint presentation, whichyou can download from theMembers� Room (look underChairman�s Corner). I hope thiswill be useful for those who wereunable to attend the AGM.

Web AwardsI also announced the winners

of the Guild Web Awards. Thisyear we had 21 entries and ninefor the new competition for bestweb Profile. Congratulations tothe winners: Des Gander, JamesSpidle and Larry Treverton andthe three commended entries:Teresa Pask, Stuart Pask and KenGrubb. The Profile winners were

Stephen Benham, David Mellorand Jennifer Tudbury.

Thanks to my fellow judgesSheila Yeo and Penny Denby � itwas hard work assessing so manysites against a wide range of cri-teria. The best sites were veryimpressive and prompted me torealise my own site is now look-ing jaded and needs a refresh.

Planning for the next two Con-ferences is well under way. In2007 we will be in Basingstoke,Hampshire, while in 2008 we will

meet in Bideford, Devon.The Committee year is now in

full swing and we have held thefirst meeting of our new Execu-tive and our second main Com-mittee meeting of the year. Don�tforget that you can read ourCommittee minutes in the Mem-bers� Room, though there�salways a delay in their appear-ance, as minutes aren�t confirmeduntil the following meeting. Theymay not be the world�s mostexciting read, but do rememberthat any Guild member mayobserve at any meeting, with theprior agreement of the Chairman,if you really want to find outwhat we get up to.

New roleYou�ll see we considered a new

role being taken on by two ofour Committee members, BarbaraHarvey and Peter Copsey, namelyGuild Archivists. In recent monthsa number of long-standing mem-bers have ceased their studies fora range of reasons, but havedonated their material to theGuild. We intend wherever poss-ible to digitise our archivedstudies but are, for the timebeing at least, holding on to allphysical material and have rentedsome commercial storage facili-ties for this. In an ideal world,any member donating materialwould present it in digitisedform. Guidance on this is avail-able on our website.

But many members startedtheir studies before computersbecame commonplace and muchof their material remains in paperform. In fact, even computerised

New Guild CommitteeThis year�s Committee comprises:-

Peter Walker (Chairman)Paul Millington (Vice-Chairman)Kirsty Gray (Secretary)Cliff Kemball (Treasurer)Roger Goacher (Registrar)Roy Stockdill (Editor)Howard Benbrook (Sales and Bookstall)Sandra Turner (Regional Rep-resentatives Coordinator)Rod Clayburn (Renewals Secretary)Ken Toll (Production Manager)Barbara HarveyRoy RaymentPeter CopseySteven WhitakerFull details of the various posts

held (including post-holders out-side the Committee) can be foundhere:

http://www.one-name.org/members/committee.html

Journal of One-Name Studies, July�September 2006 5

Are you interested in taking on an �orphaned� one-name study?

studies accrue masses of paper,too. We have recognised that allsuch studies, before the e-Librarian can digitise them, needa lot of review, weeding, sortingand cataloguing to ensure thatwhat is captured and archivedcan be readily understood. If youwould like to assist, Barbara andPeter would be pleased to hearfrom you. Equally, tell us if youare interested in taking on one ofthese �orphaned� studies, whichwe expect to list on the website.

The Committee discussed theseideas at our second meeting butdecided that these new rolesmight cause confusion, given theexistence of both a Librarian ande-Librarian as well. So instead weexpect to combine all these tasksinto a single Librarian/Archivistrole and give that officer free-dom to delegate some or all ofthese tasks to others.

More online censusesYet more census material is

now available online. We nowhave the 1841 on Ancestry, whileScotland�s People has a completeset of Scottish census records.Sometimes the flood of new datacan create yet more pressure onone-namers and new datasources needing collection candistract us from some otherimportant activities, such as pub-lishing what we have found.

These new indexes are open-ing our eyes to many new formsof deviant spellings of our namesand new techniques are neededto find those who are at firstsight missing from the indexes.What is obvious to us is notobvious to a foreign transcribernot familiar with 19th centuryhandwriting, 19th century namesor British place names.

You might have thoughtsomeone would recognise thereis no such name as LACKEWIAHand it was really ZACHARIAH,but, on reflection, we have to be

grateful these censuses havebeen indexed at all. Of course,when a transcriber comes across avery odd middle name, like oneof my flock who had the middlename THISTLE, we can sparesome sympathy when the trans-criber could only see TLIESBLE!We now have to engage in a dif-ferent sort of detective work.

In recent months we have seenGenes Reunited take over theoriginal 1901 census site and nowGenes Reunited and FriendsReunited have been bought by

ITV. 1837online has absorbed TheNational Archivist and made anagreement with 192.com to pro-vide access to their telephonedirectory and electoral roll infor-mation. Scale counts and the bigguy on the block remains Ances-

try. In the USA, their competitorProQuest, which produces Heri-tageQuest Online, is struggling.In the meantime, it�s good to seeour friend David Bethell, wellknown for his Family OriginName Survey (FONS), produce hisspecialist material on a newwebsite, TheOriginalRecord.com.Long may we see the moreobscure sources being capturedfor our benefit.

The more observant amongyou will have noticed the Guildhas a new block advert in FamilyTree Magazine. Unlike our long-standing advert in the ClassifiedOne-Name Studies listings, this isnot promoting the Guild to pot-ential new members but, rather,promoting your studies byencouraging family historians tosearch our online Register. This isone of the results of our Market-ing Subcommittee led by KirstyGray. We are interested in similarpromotions in other journalsaround the world, so if there isan appropriate magazine youfeel we should advertise in,please let Kirsty know.

I started this column referringto my upbeat report to the AGM.But in the conclusion I mentionedthat several long-standing Com-mittee members are starting towind-down their commitments,which puts immense pressure onthe rest. The Guild is doing morethan ever before but we can onlysustain this level of activity ifmore members come forward toassist our projects.

Crying wolf? I fear not. Ifyou�ve considered assisting inthe past but were worried abouttaking on too big a commitment,don�t worry. Much of the Guildremains well organised, but wedo need a few more pairs ofhands to see through our regularprogramme of seminars, adver-tising and the many new projectsassisting members. Could this beyou? ❍

DNA Advisory GroupFollowing up what I reported inthe last Journal, the DNAAdvisory Group has beenthinking through what stepsthe Guild should take to assistmembers with DNA studies. Arange of useful issues havebeen considered by the group,we have agreed that thisadvisory role should continueand we will now explore howwe can take forward specificideas for DNA-related projectsand activities.

Another area under study ishow we might collaborate withthe people who have producedthe Surname Profiler websitewhich Ken Toll reviewed in thelast Journal, so that anyonelooking for a name thatcorresponds to a Guild-registered name (some 10% ofthose on the site) can bereferred to the relevant Guildmember. This will requiredevelopments on both theirwebsite and ours but, giventime, should produce benefitsto Guild members.


FTER HAVING done my one-name studyfor a number of years, I began to get theimpression that people with unusualforenames did not seem to live long.

When I came across a Hephzibah or a Jasper Iwould think to myself �Ah ha, this one will be easierto follow over time than the more usual Mary orWilliam�, only to find they had died a few yearslater.

If true, this was a very bizarre phenomenonwhich needed to be studied.

I had previously extracted all the deaths from theGRO Indexes from 1837�1940 for my one-namestudy of Heppenstall and variants, which will be

referred to hereafter as �Heps�. Age at death was recorded by the GRO for the

first time in the March quarter of 1866 and so Ichose to use the records from 1866 to 1935 for thisstudy. In this 70-year period there were a total of2,518 Hep deaths of which 114 had unique fore-names � by which I mean the forename occurredonly once in the total group of 2,518. Where a Hephad two or more forenames, only the first one wasused for the purpose of analysis.

Unique forenamesThese 114 unique forenames were as follows... Aaron, Abigail, Abraham, Adam, Adelaide,

Aimee, Aldain, Alma, Alvio, Anita, Archibald,Arnold, Ashford, Basil, Beaumont, Bernard, Bryan,Carl, Clarence, Clarice, Colin, Colonel, Constance,Della, Derrick, Dinah, Donald, Dora, Doric, Douglas,Drucilla, Dyson, Edey, Edgar, Edmund, Elliott,Ephraim, Eunice, Feargus, Fearnley, Fergus, Freda,Friend, Geoffrey, Georgette, Georgina, Gilbert,Godfrey, Harland, Helena, Herman, Honora, How-ard, Hubert, Icon, Isaac, Israel, Jesse, Joah, Jonas,Joshua, Josiah, Joss, Jossie, Kenneth, Kezia, Lambert,

Lancelot, Lenies, Leslie,Lewis, Liversidge, Lloyd,Lucilla, Luke, Malcolm,Maltby, Marion, Matilda,Michael, Miriam, Muriel,Patrick, Priscilla, Prudence,Ramsden, Reginald, Ronald,Rosilla, Roy, Ruby, Russell,Sambrook, Sandford, Sep-timus, Serena, Sheila, Silas,Smith, Solomon, Stanley,Stead, Sykes, Tamar, Ter-ence, Thelma, Vera, Vinc-ent, Violetta, Waring,Wilfred, Wilmot, Winstan-ley and Winston.

First yearTable 1 shows that in the

total group of 2,518, thehighest death rate � 22 percent per year � is in the firstyear of life. The death ratethen falls rapidly to 1.6 per

Strange phenomenon in Heppenstall ONS

Why should unusual forenames be associated with a high mortality rate in infancy?

Age at Death(Years)

Non-uniqueForename

Total

44 (39%) 503 (21%) 547 (22%)17 (15%) 396 (16%) 413 (16%)

6 (5%) 91 (4%) 97 (4%) 8 (7%) 111 (5%) 119 (5%)

6 (5%) 131 (5%) 137 (5%) 4 (4%) 193 (8%) 197 (8%)

5 (4%) 241 (10%) 246 (10%)14 (12%) 320 (13%) 334 (13%)

8 (7%) 302 (13%) 310 (12%) 1 (1%) 109 (5%) 110 (4%)

1 (1%) 7 (<1%) 8 (<1%)114 (100%) 2404 (100%) 2518 (100%)

Unique Forename

<11�10

11�2021�30

31�4041�50

51�6061�70

71�8081�90

91�95Total

Table 1: Age at death in 10-year bands in Heps with unique and non-unique forenames

ONE-NAMERS are nothing if not original intheir researches. We tend to use statistics andtables to try and prove various theories orexamine trends.

However, few patterns are more curiousthan that noticed by Guild member DAVIDMELLOR, who set out to test a bizarre ques-tion � do people with unusual forenames dieearlier than those with more common ones?

By DAVIDMELLOR


cent per year averaged over the age range 1�10years. It then falls to a low rate of 0.4�0.8 per centyear average in the 11�50 year age range and thenrises to 1.0�1.3% per year average in the 51�80 yearage range.

The table also shows that under a year of age,Heps with unique forenames have almost twice thedeath rate compared with Heps with non-uniqueforenames. This relationship is looked at moreclosely in Table 2.

Table 2 shows that Heps with unique forenameshave a higher mortality rate � 39% � in the first yearof life than the Heps with non-unique forenames(21per cent ). This difference is highly significantstatistically (X2 =18.96, df = 2, p<<0.01).

Thus, it does appear that Heps with uniqueforenames have a higher mortality than Heps with

non-unique forenames but only in the first year oflife. The next question, of course, is why should thisbe so? One explanation might be some bias in theavailable data which could have led to a spuriousresult.

BiasOne possible source of bias might be that more of

the Heps with unique forenames had been born inearlier years than the Heps with non-unique fore-names. Infant mortality might possibly have beenhigher in those earlier years. Table 3 looks just at the547 Hep deaths in infancy (i.e. before the age of oneyear). It shows that Heps with unique forenames

were actually slightly less likely to have been born inthe earlier years when compared with their non-unique forename colleagues.

Bias could also exist if more of the infant Hepswith unique forenames were shown to have died in

the North of England, where infantmortality might possibly have beenhigher then than in the south. Table4 looks just at the 547 Hep deaths ininfancy (i.e. before the age of oneyear).

Infant Heps with unique fore-names were actually slightly lesslikely to have died in registrationdistricts 8�11 (i.e. Wales and the

north of England) than infant Heps with non-uniqueforenames. The opposite was true in registrationdistricts 1�7, i.e. the Midlands and the south ofEngland.

LimitedOther possible biases are much more difficult to

check out because of the very limited data available.For example it would have been helpful to havesome form of socio-economic information, as itmight be argued that, if the Heps with uniqueforenames could be shown to be more commonly

from lower social groups, theinfantile mortality might beexpected to be higher for that rea-son.

Perhaps poorer families weremore likely to give their childrenunusual forenames in the hope thatthe name would give the child agood chance in life. Perhaps betteroff families were more likely to give

their children more ordinary forenames so that theyblended in well and did not stand out from thecrowd. Sadly, no social information was available totest this hypothesis.

In conclusion it appears that, at least in my one-name study, an unusual forename is associated witha high mortality in infancy but not at any other age.It would be of great interest to know whether thisobservation is peculiar to my one-name study orwhether it applies to other one-name studies aswell. ❍ � Acknowledgment: The author would like tothank Leslie Dunkling for his advice on givenforenames.

Dr DAVID H MELLORMember 3823

2 Bromley RoadWest Bridgeford

NottinghamNotts NG2 7AP

[email protected]

Age at Death(Years)

UniqueForename

Non-uniqueForename

Total

<1 44 (39%) 503 (21%) 547 (22%)1-95 70 (61%) 1901 (79%) 1971 (78%)Total 114 (100%) 2404 (100%) 2518(100%)

Table 2: Age at death of <1 year and >1 year in Heps with unique and non-unique forenames

Year ofBirth

UniqueForename

Non-uniqueForename

Total

1866�1900 20 (45%) 309 (61%) 329 (60%)1901�1935 24 (55%) 194 (39%) 218 (40%)Total 44(100%) 503 (100%) 547 (100%)

Table 3: Year of birth in the Heps with unique and non-unique forenames who died in infancy

Table 4: Death registration districts in the Heps with unique and non-unique forenames who died in infancy

RegistrationDistricts

UniqueForename

Non-uniqueForename

Total

1�7 10 (23%) 52 (10%) 62 (11%)8�11 34 (77%) 451 (90%) 485 (89%)Total 44 (100%) 503 (100%) 547 (100%)


DNA PROJECT can be of tremendous valueto a one-name study. Here are just a fewof the benefits that can be achieved byundertaking one...

� Validate research. � Find any mistaken connections in your research.� Determine which family trees are related.� Bridge gaps in the paper records.� Confirm variants.� Find unknown variants.� Sort out multiple families found in the same

location.� Discover information which may solve research

problems, and/or resolve brick walls.� Get clues regarding migrations.� Confirm migrations.� Confirm suspected events, such as illegitimacy

and adoption.� Discover information to define the major

branches of the tree going back to the origin of thesurname.

� Discover information about the evolution of thesurname.

� Discover clues regarding the origin of thesurname.

� Determine the number of points of origin forthe surname.

� Get clues to help your research.

Establishing a projectThe steps to establishing a DNA Project are

typically the following:� Vendor evaluation and selection.� Establish the DNA Project with the vendor.� Establish your goals.� Select the surname variants.� Determine your approach, such as targeted

(one family tree at a time) combined with openrecruitment.

� Set up your Project Definition on the vendor�swebsite, which is your project description and the

variants.� Identify the two distant male persons to test in

your family tree for the project surname. If one maleis yourself, order your test kit.

� Recruit the two participants for your familytree. (If you are one participant, recruit the otherparticipant). Since this is your tree, it may be best tooffer to pay for the tests or solicit funds from familymembers to cover the cost of testing.

� Set up a website for the project, either as apage to an existing site, or with a vendor-providedtool.

� Write an announcement regarding the DNAProject. This is the beginning of recruitingparticipants.

� Post your recruiting announcement to appli-cable message boards, mailing lists, forums, familyassociations, newsletters, etc.

� Get back the results for your family tree. Addthese results to the website. If any mutations arefound, consider resolving this mutation(s) by testingone or more additional participants from yourfamily tree. The objective is to establish the ances-tral result for the progenitor of your family tree.

� Set up a donation fund to pay for the tests ofcritical participants. The vendor may provide anoption to handle the fund or you can handle thefund yourself.

� Identify the two critical participants for eachfamily tree. When possible, you want to test theoldest male available.

� Write a recruiting form letter/e-mail using theproject announcement.

� Begin the recruiting process. First contact thosewhom you have had contact with in the past.

� Write an announcement for the Donation Fund.Send emails/letters to solicit donations. This letter ore-mail is primarily sent to those who are not poten-tial participants, including the females.

These steps to start and manage a DNA Projectare not as much work as the impression they give inlist form. As with any research, the tasks involvedwith a DNA Project can be scheduled and spreadover time.

Once you establish your DNA Project with avendor, there is the possibility that others will findyour project as a result of the vendor’s marketingefforts or they will find your website.

Though you can�t count on potential participantsfinding your DNA Project, the fact that you have a

Some tips for establishing a DNA Project for your one-name studyBy Susan C. Meates

IN THE two previous issues of the Journal,Susan Meates, an American member of theGuild, wrote about her extensive work on aworldwide DNA Project as part of her MeatesOne-Name Study. In this final article in theseries, she offers advice for other Guildmembers who may be thinking of setting upa similar project.


DNA Project established enables others to find it. Inaddition, establishing a DNA Project for your regis-tered surname is a deterrent to another personestablishing the project. Since a project exists, theyare more likely to join the project, than to establisha competing one.

Based on the recent survey through the Chair-man�s NewsFlash, cost was a major concern for manyGuild members. Cost is one factor to consider,though not the only factor, when selecting a vendor.

The choices for handling the cost are:� The participant pays for the test.� A donation fund subsidises part or all the cost

of the test.� The Project manager pays for the test or subsi-

dises a portion of the test for key participants.

DonationsFor your family tree, most likely either you would

solicit donations or pay the cost of the test, if theparticipants are not willing to pay the cost. Someproject managers don�t even mention cost to theparticipants for their tree, since testing their tree isthe first priority, and it is their family historyresearch project, and the most important factor issecuring the participants.

Often, multiple family members will contributesmall sums, which added together, will cover thecost for a participant.

A quality recruiting letter/e-mail will go a longway towards overcoming the cost issue. A recruitingletter starts with some brief information about thetest � though do not turn the letter into a scientificpresentation, which may turn off participants. Aftera brief explanation, the family history benefits andbenefits to the participant are stressed. The primaryobjective of the letter is to recruit the participant totake the test and the second objective is to thendeal with the cost, and when available, offer theoption of subsidised tests.

If it is not feasible to subsidise tests, eitheryourself or through raising funds, your project canstill move forward and you will have the benefit ofhaving an established project which others can find.In addition, an established project deters anotherperson from starting a project for your Guild-regis-tered surname.

Tests varietyOne approach to keep cost down is to select a

vendor who offers a variety of tests for differentsets of markers, where the participant can upgradeover time. For example, the vendor may offer a 12marker test, where the participant can upgrade to25 or 37 markers later. This approach makes theinitial cost less, and the participant can spread thecost over time. This approach does cost slightly morein total than initially purchasing 25 or 37 markers.

Keep in mind that most vendors have two pricingstructures, one for DNA Projects, and one for thosenot in a project. Therefore, it is important to estab-

lish your project before anyone is tested, in order toget the lower prices offered to DNA Projects.

Subsidising the cost of some tests for your DNAProject is an expense similar to other outlays foryour one-name study, such as purchasing certifi-cates, purchasing database credits or subscriptions,funds for FONS, researchers, or trips to performresearch. What will be received from this expense isinformation that can�t be found in the paperrecords. This information could have a significantimpact on your one-name study.

The cost incurred for your DNA Project can bespread out over time by initially focusing on recruit-ing participants who will pay for their test, and thenlater subsidising tests for critical participants.

Excited and interested participants who have agood time participating will often be helpful inrecruiting other participants and are a good sourceof donations.

The costs of testing varies based on the vendorand the number of markers tested. This cost rangesfrom £55.00 ($95.00 USD) to £125 ($219.00 USD).

The number of markers tested is important.More markers provide more information. Tests with10 to 15 markers are considered low-resolution tests,and tests with 23 or more markers are consideredhigh-resolution. Low-resolution tests are best todetermine that people are not related.

Many projects set as a minimum 23 or 25 markers,to get the extra information provided and to avoidmistaken conclusions from low-resolution tests. Ifcost is a major consideration for a participant, withsome vendors, they can start with a low-resolutiontest, and then upgrade to additional markers in thefuture. However, avoid firms that only provide low-resolution tests.

Selecting vendorWhen considering vendors, it is not as simple as

just selecting the low-cost vendor. There are manyother important factors to consider in vendorselection, that often justifies a higher price. Here arejust a few factors to consider:

� DNA storage This is very important, so your project can take

advantage of future advances, especially for elderlyparticipants who may no longer be here when theadvance occurs. In addition, DNA storage is veryimportant for the last male of a family tree.Imagine how frustrating it would be to have anadvance in the future, the one participant you needto upgrade to resolve a situation is deceased, andhis DNA wasn’t stored.

� The participant experience Happy participants recruit other participants.

What features are provided by the vendor for theparticipant? Do the participants get match e-mails?Do the participants have multiple different data-bases they can search, such as to learn about theirdistance ethnic origins? Do the participants have theoption to join multiple projects, so that they can get


the most out of their participation and perhapsmake discoveries?

Does the vendor offer mtDNA testing, so theparticipant can learn about their direct femaleline, if they are so inclined? Can the participanthavemultiple e-mail addresses in their kit record,so that they can share their DNA experience withtheir femalefemale relatives, such as their sister ormother? This last feature is important, especiallywhen a female is providing the funds or making adonation for the participant�s test.

� The vendor’s database. One factor is whether the participant is auto-

matically included or has to take steps himself toget his data entered. It is easiest for the partici-pant if he is automatically added, and can justclick a selection to see who he matches.

� Website for the project. Some vendors provide a free website for a DNA

Project and a tool where the website can be builtin as little as 30 minutes, with no technical

knowledge required. A DNA Project website isimportant, for potential participants to find theproject and to establish credibility when recruit-ing participants.

� Traffic to the vendor’s website and theirmarketing efforts.

This factor is very important because the ven-dor’s marketing efforts can find participants foryour project. Consider their global marketingefforts, since most likely people with your sur-name today reside in multiple countries.

Project tools� Tools for the Project Manager. These tools can result in the project taking

significantly less time to manage. Basic toolsinclude a list of members and their status and theability to extract member test results in multipleformats such as PDF and Excel.

The more advanced features include Genetic

Distance analysis reports, Time to CommonAncestor reports, sub-groups and mapping of theancestral location for each participant.

� Track record of scientific advances. The track record of the vendor is important. A

DNA Project is a long-term project, and scientificadvances will result in new tests becoming avail-able to assist in your one-name study. Selecting avendor is not just about the tests available today,but also the tests of the future. Looking at avendor’s past track record and their scientificpartners may indicate expectations for the future.

Resources and service� Education. Does the vendor invest in educational

resources, such as through the website and anewsletter? This illustrates a commitment to thecustomer.

� Customer Service. Does the vendor provide e-mail and telephone

consultation and what isthe quality and timelinessof their customer service?Send an inquiry and try outthe customer service.� Free batches of test kitsto take to events, such asfamily reunions. This is an excellentapproach to recruit partici-pants. The participant laterremits payment, or partialpayment, and subsidisedfunds are added whenrequired. �Vendor-supplied donationsystem. Often, people feel morecomfortable donating to a

fund held by a vendor instead of donating to anindividual. In addition, the vendor system cantake credit cards, and deal with all currencies.

� Number of DNA Projects established at thevendor.

This tells you about market acceptance of thevendor.

Although cost is certainly important, it is notthe only factor to consider. ❍

SUSAN C. MEATESMember 3710PO Box 53071

KnoxvilleTN 37950-3071

[email protected]

USEFUL WEB LINKS FOR A DNA PROJECT

VendorsFamily Tree DNA: http://www.Familytreedna.comDNA Heritage: http://www.Dnaheritage.comRelative Genetics: http://www.Relativegenetics.comOxford Ancestors: http://www.oxfordancestors.com (only offers 10

markers)

Free educational newsletter provided by Family Tree DNA: http://www.familytreedna.com/fgregister.asp

Past issues of the Family Tree DNA newsletter:http://www.familytreedna.com/facts_genes.asp?act=past


HE WEBSITE Curious Fox, atwww.curiousfox.com, is certainly anunusual one and was first mentioned onthe Guild Forum in 2004 and again in 2005

and 2006. More recent discussions have promptedme to write this webwatch feature, as it is clearthat the site was not widely known and not fullyunderstood.

Where appropriate, I have utilised material fromthe website and other sources in writing this review.

Curious Fox is basically a contact site. Peopleadvertise their interests and others can contact themthrough the site, subject to certain constraints �more on this later.

The site was launched in August 2002 by RosanneSharp as a gazetteer of 50,000 UK villages, townsand counties. Each village has a page where you canleave genealogy and local history contact requests.

There are links to the exact location of every villagevia maps (using www.old-maps.co.uk,www.multimap.com and www.streetmap.co.uk)and many villages also have links to old photo-graphs via www.francisfrith.com. Of particular useto one-namers is the ability to search the site bysurname. Recent changes include the addition ofIrish villages and USA content.

ResearchLocal historians and family historians researching

the same geographic area are now able to get intouch, even if they are continents apart. Entries aremore than the usual bare names and dates � see theHome Page in Figure 1 for examples.

You can add interesting details about yourresearch, ask about local history or even advertisethe results of your work. If you can help otherpeople by answering questions about a particularvillage you will be doubly welcome. All members geta �My Page� where they can store their villages andedit their entries.

To use the site fully you must register with themfirst, either as a Free (red mailbox) or a Paid (greenmailbox) member. All members can post entries.

Anybody can send a message to a green mailboxbut only paid members can send messages to redmailboxes. The system was designed so that anyoneoffering help does not need to pay a penny butanybody wanting help can encourage responses byjoining to get green mailboxes.

Spam-proofThe message system is spam-proof, as no e-mail

addresses appear on the site. Note that all initialcommunication is via the website, which thenforwards the message to the recipient�s e-mailaddress without disclosing it to anyone else. Therecipient is then able to reply to the enquirer direct,via the enquirer�s e-mail address. Note that theposting of contact details in research entries isstrongly discouraged.

Paid members can also add a profile, show theURL for a family or local history site (I�ve used myGuild Profile page) and can opt to receive e-mailalerts if any new entries are added to their villages(see Figure 2 on page 12).

The style of the site is extremely simple � almostbland � but one aspect I particularly like is that itdoes not have those annoying and irrelevant advertsand pop-ups. It is, therefore, entirely funded by its

Curious Fox is a curious contact website but an under-used resource

Figure 1 � Curious Fox�s home page

By KENTOLL


paid membership.� Searching for locationsUse the village search box to find any location.

You do not need to type the whole name in thevillage search box, just the first fewcharacters will suffice. You can alsosubstitute the wildcard �*� for anycharacters you are not sure about.This can be used to avoid hyphens,apostrophes, spelling and two-word name problems.

A sample village result is shownin Figure 3 (Bere Ferrers, Devon).Note the �List villages within� box .This can be used to find the namesof villages within 1 to 10 km. Like-wise, the �Show entries within�box enables you to widen thesearch for research entries. Both ofthese systems ignore county bound-aries. Note that the site usestraditional counties and not thecurrent ones, presumably on thebasis that it is for historicalresearch. Another useful techniqueis to use �County > Villages A-Z� tofind only villages that have entries.

� Searching for surnamesYou can also search by exact

Surname in a separate box � wild-cards do not work here. See Figure

4 for the results for PALGRAVE. Foreach entry, after the surname(s)there is a link to the village, ena-bling you to find others researchingin that village, or to find a link to amap/photograph.

� Adding an entryTo add an entry, go to a village

page and use �Add an Entry�. Justtype your information into the boxprovided � it really is that simple.

� To send a messageTo send a message, click the mail-

box (envelope symbol) beside anentry. A copy of the message is sentto your own e-mail address. If youare a free member and want tosend a message to another freemember, then you�ll need toupgrade to full membership.

� Becoming a Full memberAlthough Free members are

equally welcome and there is nopressure to pay, there are distinctadvantages in having Full member-ship, which costs £5 for up to a year.

You can pay online with World-Pay and Paypal (both allegedly takemost major credit and debit cards,plus Switch and Solo). You can also

send a UK cheque. Just follow the �Join� or�Upgrade� routes on the site. If you can�t pay bythese methods then the site offers to �sortsomething out for you�!

Figure 2 � members� page

Figure 3 � village results page


� SummaryThe site is very simple and works well

because people doing research in thesame small area often have informationwhich would help others even if theyare not from the same family.

For me the advantage is to be able toeconomically post adverts for my ONSat village level. The only disadvantage Ican see is that the site is not wellknown and some of my favourite par-ishes have yet to have an entry, evenfrom me! ❍

KEN C TOLLMember 1331

20 North RoadThree Bridges

CrawleyWest Sussex RH10 1JX

[email protected]

Letter to the EditorFOLLOWING Ken Toll�s article in the lastJournal on the Surname Profilerwebsite, I had a look at this site and wasvery impressed, especially with the bitwhich says that only 3 per cent of peo-ple have a higher-status surname thanLOVEGROVE. What a good, reliable siteit is! But here�s a challenge. Can anyone find asurname for which 99 per cent (or more) of peoplehave a higher-status surname? If not, then who can

get closest? I�ve tried MOLECATCHER, but therewere no hits.

ROGER LOVEGROVE, Member 628

Figure 4 � surname results page

Next issue will be100th JournalBy Roy Stockdill, EditorTHE October�December issue 2006 of theJournal of One-Name Studies will be a veryimportant one � all Guild members, pleasenote!

It will be the ONE-HUNDREDTH issue of thepublication, which has been the flagship ofthe Guild for 25 years now. The Journal waslaunched at the beginning of 1982 and hasbeen published continuously four times ayear ever since.

During that time, in recent years, we havetwice won the prestigious Elizabeth SimpsonAward of the Federation of Family HistorySocieties for the best journal.

To mark this auspicious birthday there willbe a special souvenir edition � and I wantmembers to play their part. If you have anyideas for features, items or other ways ofcelebrating the event, please send them to

me at [email protected] as soon aspossible, so that I can start planning thespecial issue well in advance.

One proposal is to publish a special articleor supplement on 100 Top Tips for One-Namers. I want as many members as poss-ible to contribute to this � including ouroverseas members, who I would like toweigh in with tips, advice and sources fromtheir own countries.

The Top Tips can include regular andspecial sources, particularly lesser knownones, websites, advice and titbits of infor-mation you have picked up over the yearsand which will help other members. Sendthem to me at the above e-mail address.

Special CDAnd with the 101st issue of the Journal,

which will be the January�March 2007 one,we are planning to issue a special CD withthe previous 100 issues in PDF format, sothat you will have a complete archive of allthe Journals to date. ❍

14 Journal of One-Name Studies, July�September 2006 15Journal of One-Name Studies, July�September 2006

Scenes from the Guild�s 27th Annual Conference and AGM at Staffordshire�s Yarnfield Park Centre

Left: Chris Braund and Janet Few, judges of the Journal One-Name PublicationsAward. Above: Chris Braund introduces a talk, with Kirsty Gray, Peter Walker, DerekPalgrave and Cliff Kemball on the platform behind him.

Top left: Kirsty Gray, Peter Walker, Presi-dent Derek Palgrave and Cliff Kemball atthe opening of the conference. Above:Treasurer Cliff presents his report to theAGM. Left: the audience at one of thelectures. Top right: Colin Chapman prep-ares his talk, introduced by DerekPalgrave. Lower right: John Hanson andJeanne Bunting in discussion.

Pictures by GORDON ADSHEAD,PETER WALKER and ROY STOCKDILL

Top left: Peter Walker indebate with Chris Pomery, oneof the speakers on DNA testing.Left: President Palgrave andChairman Walker greet guestsat the reception. Above: SusanAtkins does a stint behind theGuild Bookstall.

Top left: a group at the Saturdaynight dinner. Left: an excellent jazzquartet performed for delegatesduring the dinner. Above: SandraTurner and Trish Bliss at the RegionalRepresentatives� meeting held duringthe conference.


HIS YEAR�S Annual Conference took placeat Yarnfield Park, Staffordshire, on April7�9. I must thank the organising committeefor the excellent venue. Not least of its

advantages, so far as I was concerned, was the factthat, as I am a Shropshire lad, the conference waswithin 20 minutes of my home. Those Guildmembers who had to struggle through the trafficon the M6 may take a different view.

As well as its location, I found the venue verysuitable. The accommodation was fairly standardhotel-style rooms in four blocks, with a coveredwalkway to the main building where the meals wereserved and presentations took place. Presentationfacilities were good, with few problems with thespeaker system, unlike last year, and additionalmeeting rooms were available for activities involv-ing smaller groups. Staff, on the few occasions I hadto talk to them, I found helpful and pleasant andthe food was adequate, although I did find it some-what unexciting.

Ice-breakerAfter registration and the first evening meal, the

conference was due to start with an ice-breakerquiz. Unfortunately, I had other engagements priorto the conference and by the time I�d figured outthe intricacies of the digital locking system on thebedroom doors, I was too late to participate in thequiz � although I did hear quizmaster Kirsty Gray ather schoolmarmly best keeping order.

The quiz was followed, at least for some of us, bya few drinks and a game of pool. Fortunately, thecentre had two tables, so everyone was assured of aregular game, although the cues were somewhatwarped � at least, that was my excuse for the manymissed shots!

The next morning, after breakfast, we settleddown for the AGM. After the welcome from Guild

President David Palgrave, Chairman Peter Walkerand Treasurer Cliff Kemball presented their reports.If I may precis them, all is basically well on theadministration and finance front. We have sufficientfunds to start additional projects if we can findadditional volunteers, so if thereis a project that you would liketo see, why not suggest it to amember of the Committee?Speaking of which, I have toreport that I am now a Commit-tee member (mad fool!).

I was also co-opted to writethis report after a conversationthat went something like:

Editor: �Steven, I need to finda volunteer to write up the con-ference. As you did last year�sreport, can you do this year�s,too?�

Myself: �No, Roy, I�m muchtoo busy this time.�

Editor: �Thanks for that, can Ihave it by the start of June,please?�

Presentations to the winnersof the best website and bestone-name publication weremade � my congratulations tothe winners. Yet again, I amreminded that I must set up myown one-name website and thewebsites shown here demon-strate what can be done.

After morning coffee, the first of the presenta-tions took place. Richard Ratcliffe talked onMethodism and Methodist records. This could havebeen a very dry topic, but I felt that Richard pre-sented it well and I did learn something more about

Richard Ratcliffe

Gordon Read

Peter Copsey


my Methodist ancestors and some additional poten-tial sources of information.

This was followed by Gordon Read on Denomina-tions, Dynasties, Diaries and Dictionaries of NationalBiography. I have to admit that I didn�t enjoy thistalk as much. Many of the topics seemed somewhatirrelevant to one-name studies and those that werecouldn�t be covered in as much detail as I wouldhave liked. The talk seemed to jump between them

without a com-mon thread andI found parts ofit difficult to fol-low. Well, youcan�t win themall and I hopethat otherGOONS gotmore out of it. That took usup to lunch,which was fol-lowed by aLaurel and

Hardy double act � no, sorry, I meant Peter Copseyand Howard Benbrook, who did a presentationentitled The Challenge of Marriage. This was, ofcourse, about the very successful Marriage Chal-lenge project organised by Peter, which is intendedto obtain details of marriages listed in the GROIndexes from the church records without having topay for the certificates.

Graveyard shiftHoward did his best to keep us awake during the

�graveyard shift� � you can take the man out ofacting, but you can�t take act-ing out of the man. As aprevious Marriage Challenger,much of what was discussedwas familiar to me, but it wassatisfying to see the progressthat had been made. So, if youwould like to help with a marri-age challenge, or you just havequestions, Peter is the person to contact. It is fun todo and you do help a lot of people and if I can do it,anyone can.

MigrationAfter the tea break, we

listened to Colin Chapman,originator of the ChapmanCounty Codes, speaking on emi-gration and immigration. Thiswas an interesting andthought-provoking talk, show-ing that there�s more to migra-tion than simply trying to findwork. It went well with the fol-lowing speaker, David Hawk-

ings, whose entertaining talk on Criminal Ancestorsincluded some very strange crimes indeed. Just don�tmention the chicken!

That concluded the day�s speakers, so it was off toget changed into best bib and tucker for the ban-quet. After we were greeted by the Chairman inblack tie and then had a drink, we went in to din-ner. The food was accompanied by music from GaryLatham and the Tom Kincaid Trio, which I ratherenjoyed, but, of course, the chat and discussion wasthe best part of the meal.

EcumenicalThe next morning we had to vacate our rooms, so

those with sore heads must have had a difficult startto the day. The ecumenical service was conducted byDavid Gynes and then the Regional Reps met anddiscussed various issues, including ideas to involvemore members in the Guild.

After morning coffee, we hadthe first speaker of Sunday�sprogramme, David Hawkingsonce more. His topic this timewas Fire Insurance Records,which are, as he described them,a much neglected source forfamily and local historians. Thistalk was sponsored by the Hal-sted Trust, so thanks to them, Iam now better informed.

This was followed by Peter Higginbotham, talkingon The Shame of the Workhouse. I have not heardPeter before, but his website,www.workhouses.org.uk, will be well known tomany of you. His talk covered ground familiar tome, but I have had an interest in workhouses forsome years. As ever, it is a topic that evokes emo-tions more than any other andmakes many people considertheir ancestors in a new light.

The lunch break intervened atthis point. Then we had twotalks from members of the Guild,Chris Pomery and Alan Savin,both relating to DNA and its usein family history. As I have ascientific background, thegenetics part of the presenta-tions was already familiar to me,but I know it leaves others cold.

My main interest would be inrunning a DNA project and howyou persuade people to be DNAtested, which wasn�t covered inas much detail as I�d like. Per-haps a more united approachwould work better in the future.

That took us up to the closeof conference, where the President wished us welland invited us to the 2007 conference in Basing-stoke. I hope to see you there. ❍

Howard Benbrook � �You can takethe man out of acting, but youcan�t taking acting out of the man.�

Colin Chapman

David Hawkings

Peter Higginbotham

Chris Pomery

Alan Savin

Journal of One-Name Studies, July�September 200618

VERY ENJOYABLE andwell organised Seminarwas held on Saturday,May 27 2006 in the John

Rylands Library, University ofManchester.

There were three speakers plusan informative Q & A Session.

The first speaker was DrGareth Lloyd who is Archivist ofthe Methodist Archives, whichare currently housed as part ofthe Special Collections in themodern University Library whilethe building in Deansgate isrefurbished.

The Special Collections sectionwill be closing in its currentlocation at the end of this yearand reopening to the public inapproximately April 2007.

ComplicatedHe went on to explain a little

of the complicated history of theMethodists whose records makeup the majority of the collection.John & Charles Wesley wereactually Ordained Anglican Minis-ters and even as late as 1882there were still strong connec-tions between the Church ofEngland and the WesleyanMethodists.

As far as family historians areconcerned, there are very fewbaptisms, marriages and burialsin Wesleyan Chapels prior to the19th century, apart from theChapel in City Road, London, sothe parish church was the venuefor these events prior to thatdate.

As far as the records at JohnRylands Library are concerned,

they have 80,000 books, severalthousand items of other printedmaterial and of manuscriptsincluding many items relating toJohn & Charles Wesley, full runsof the Methodist Magazine,Wesleyan Conference materialrelating to preachers and laymembers, diaries plus the Who�sWho of Methodist Preachers,published in 1932, and MethodistCircuit Plans showing who waspreaching at which Chapel fromthe early days of the Church.

Details of all the records canbe found on the website...

http://rylibweb.man.ac.uk/data1/dg/text/method.htmlThe second talk was a fascinat-

ing insight into the growth of theLancashire cotton industry andthe Industrial Revolution inManchester and surroundingareas presented � for most of thetime without notes � by ChrisMakepeace.

He explained how the changesin machinery and the introduc-tion of steam power affected thecotton industry and the effect thecotton industry had on relatedindustries such as the chemicalindustry and engineering.

King cottonManchester turned from a

market town in 1780 to an indus-trial centre for the surroundingcotton towns in the 1840s, whichwas made more significant by thebuilding of the canals to trans-port coal to drive the machineryand to take away the completedgoods for export via Liverpool.Chris also pointed out that themajority of the cotton industrywas actually in towns like Roch-

dale, Blackburn and Burnley. Itwas a fascinating talk.

Lunch was a delicious buffet ofsandwiches, fruit and cakes.There was also plenty of tea andcoffee throughout the day.

Peter Park FSG gave the talkafter lunch, entitled �Mr Mugge-ridge�s Migrants�, which was asintriguing as the title suggests.

Between February 1835 andMay 1837 5,000 people weremoved from the South and Eastof England to work in the cottonmills of Lancashire. This wasdecided after a letter was pub-lished in The Times signed by thepoor of Bledlow, Buckingham-shire, stating that they could notlive on the 7s per week paid bythe Poor Law Guardians.

RefusedAt the same time, the Lanca-

shire cotton mills were lookingfor staff. The signatories of theletter were approached to see ifthey would move �up north� andto start with they all refused.

Although it was not compul-sory, they were told that thealternative was the workhouse.Eventually, two families agreedand others subsequently fol-lowed. An agent named RichardMuggeridge was appointed inManchester to arrange employ-ment and look after them oncethey had moved.

When other areas heard aboutwhat was happening they alsosent people up to the mills. Thearrangement eventually ceasedwhen there was a downturn inthe cotton industry in 1837.

The records of those whomigrated can be found in Series

Enjoyable talks on Methodist Archives,cotton industry and migrant workers atNorth-West Seminar in ManchesterBy Susan Atkins


MANY Guild members are regis-tered with FONS, which indexeshistorical records from the BritishIsles by surname and suppliesregistered users with typescriptcopies of entries for surnames ofinterest. So far, nearly 2,000 sur-names have been registeredwith FONS, some by geneal-ogists pursuing families withrare surnames but a great manyby one-name studiers.

Over the years FONS hasindexed about 10 million names.These are indexes to the originalrecords, rather than to FONSreports. It occurred to me thatthe indexes themselves might bea valuable resource to geneal-ogists for whom FONS might betoo specialised or too wholesalea system. Better still would be ifthe indexes could be linked toPDF scans of the original recordsand made available online.

This is the essence of theorig-inalrecord.com. It would bewrong to say the website isFONS on-line; the two are differ-ent creatures. With FONS youorder at least five items for yoursurname from a particular per-iod; with the website you canselect an individual item. FONSreports are typescript copiesand, where necessary, are anno-tated, passages in Latin aretranslated, etc. Theoriginalre-cord.com shows a sample entryand then serves up the scans offull pages or spreads as theyappear in the source. There is nosubscription to the site and youcan make unlimited freesearches. The venture is paid forby the sale of individual scans.

One important thing is thatthe website is not OCR-based.The records have been surname-indexed by hand. Moreover,wildcards can be used � veryimportant for the genealogiststruggling with a multitude ofvariant spellings. An interestingfeature is that the wildcard

searches serve up a list of findsfrom the whole spectrum ofdates covered, which can givethe searcher very interestingleads and indicate possibilitiesthat had not been anticipated.

Even someone reluctant tobuy a scan over the net can findthe website very useful. There isa facility called Wishlist, inwhich you can list up to fiveseparate surnames and the per-iod in which you are interested.To register it is necessary to giveyour e-mail address and a pass-word is instantly sent to you.

Further records are loadedevery week. As the loadingtakes place, the computer com-pares the new indexes with thenames and periods on the wish-lists and sends out e-mailsalerting users of any new items.Whether or not you would beinterested in buying scans of thenew items, this gives you a sim-ple way of looking out for newleads for your one-name study.Registering is free and withoutobligation and your e-mailaddress is not passed on.

The statistics make interestingreading. The one I find moststriking is that on average everyvisitor clicks on about 80 of thesample scans and links. Consid-ering how simple the site is �just a search box and sets ofresults � this is an amazinglyhigh number.

Despite being so familiar withthe material, I find it fascinatingto put in a surname, then lookat the sample scans and rereadthe descriptions. It is a great toyfor the genealogical browser. Atthe moment there is only about12 per cent of the materialloaded and we have not startedon the manuscript records yet.

I hope GOONS members willlook at the site and registertheir wishlists � and that youmay find it a useful researchtool. ❍

New FONS onlinesurname indexes

MH 12 at The National Archivesplus the �Return Relative to theRemoval of Labourers� which isfound in Parliamentary Paper XLV(1843) at the House of LordsRecord Office.

The final session was a Ques-tion and Answer Session onvarious subjects, mainlyaddressed to Peter Park and relat-ing to his enjoyable talk.

Personally, I was able to talk toseveral people I have never metbefore, so this was also useful.

Overall, it was a very usefuland interesting day � thanks tothe speakers, the 40-plus mem-bers who attended and, mostimportant of all, to Sandra Turnerfor organising it. ❍

SUSAN ATKINSMember 1961

Regional Rep for Lancashire

Thanks to helperson the day

WE HELD a very enjoyable semi-nar in Manchester. I would like tothank those who helped me onthe day, especially three RegionalRepresentatives, Jenny Reeve(Northampton), Susan Atkins(Lancashire) and Gordon Adshead(Cheshire). Rod Clayburn alsohelped with setting up the soundequipment.

Unfortunately, our finalspeaker, David Bethell, wasunable to attend and althoughhe had sent me an e-mail tellingme of this, I didn�t collect it until Ireturned home. Peter Park FSGone of our other speakers whospent the day with us, stepped inand volunteered to run a ques-tion and answer session.

Although David Bethell couldnot attend the seminar, I didreceive some information fromhim about the Original Recordswebsite (adjoining columns), so Ihope you will try it and see whatyou think. Hopefully, we will in afuture Journal have a reportabout this website and its useful-ness to Guild members.

SANDRA TURNERSeminar Organiser

By DavidBethell


How many requests for a Marriage Challenge?

HAVE often been askedhow many requests are tobe expected for a typicalMarriage Challenge (MC).

Unfortunately, RegistrationDistricts (RDs) vary in sizedramatically. For the smallestRD a Challenger could expectas little as 50 marriages, whilstfor the biggest there would beseveral thousand. I have alwaysused as a benchmark for gaug-ing the size of an RD thenumber of marriages that tookplace in Q3 1881. FreeBMD(http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl) can be interro-gated by selecting the quarterand RD but leaving the nameblank. The result is a full list ofthe persons married in thatquarter which can then becounted.

When MC first began I mul-tiplied this number by 1.3 to

get an estimate of the numberof requests to be expected forthe standard period of theChallenge from 1837 to 1911.

Due to the increased interestand publicity of MC, the multi-plier has steadily risen and nowstands at four. In other words,there are now about threetimes as many requestsreceived for new Challengesthan would have been receivedif that Challenge had takenplace in the early months ofMC. Even the demand forsliced bread did not grow atsuch a rate!

FlexibleRequests that could run into

many hundreds, if not thou-sands, must put off many of usfrom attempting a Challenge.Marriage Challenge is,however, very flexible and this

problem can be simply over-come. The best way is torestrict the period of the Chal-lenge. Instead of selecting thestandard period, several Chal-lengers have wisely selected aconsiderably lesser period, suchas 1837 to 1850 or 1860, forinstance. If they find the Chal-lenge was enjoyable (or theyliked the torture!), a secondperiod, like 1851 to 1870, say,could be done at a later date.

Again, FreeBMD can be usedto determine the spread ofmarriages between 1837 to1911, which can vary consider-able between one RD and thenext. For my present MC ofWest Ham RD, only 3% of therequests are for the period1837 to 1860, with 72% in thelast 21 years, 1891 to 1911. ForPancras RD the correspondingfigures are 20% and 32% � aclear demonstration of theexpansion of London�s suburbsin the late 19th and early 20thcenturies.

Challenges commencing inthe coming months are shownin the table alongside. If youwould like to request a searchfor your marriages (registerednames only) send the detailsfrom the GRO index (1837 to1911) to the Challenger, eitherby e-mail or to his or her postaladdress given in the GuildRegister. Also, keep a watch onthe Guild webpage for Marri-age Challenge as furtherChallenges are announced.

For more information aboutMarriage Challenge, what itcomprises and how it works,see the article in the Journalissue, October�December 2005.

Anyone who would like tobecome a Challenger, or wouldlike to know more about whatis involved, please contact theMarriage Challenge Co-ordina-tor on...

[email protected]

PETER COPSEYMarriage Challenge Coordinator

RegistrationDistrict

Deadline forrequests

Challenger Challenger's e-mail

BishopStortford

21st July 2006 Nigel Rixson [email protected]

Amersham 1st August 2006 Lyn Horridge [email protected]

Lutterworth(REPEAT)

10th August 2006 Jo Mason [email protected]

New Forest 28th August 2006 Daphne Austin [email protected]

Lymington(REPEAT)

28th August 2006 Daphne Austin [email protected]

Flegg 30th August 2006 BernieGuymer

[email protected]

Havant 1st September2006

Alison Myall [email protected]

Bury StEdmunds(REPEAT)

1st September2006

SandraStevens

[email protected]

Dorking 10th September2006

Jim Isard [email protected]

Northampton(REPEAT)

15th September2006

Jenny Reeve [email protected]

Dartford 15th September2006

Cliff Kemball [email protected]

EastGrinstead

1st October 2006 RogerGoacher

[email protected]


T�S ALL getting a bit com-mercial, have you noticed?As the Internet continuesits inexorable growth, and

access to digital copies of histori-cal records in the home becomesa reality, so the world is full ofsuppliers eager to offer theirservices for money.

Did we expect it to happen thisfast? Probably not. Is it likely tocontinue? Yup. Are we gettingvalue for money? Well, how canyou know? You might, perhaps,be feeling a bit smug because thecost of travel to remote archivesis easily outweighed by yourlatest subscription to an onlineservice, but how do you judgebetween the suppliers? Couldanother service offer clearerimages, more accurate transcrip-tions, fuller indexes, morereliable access or just cheaperprices? It�s not at all clear yet, butyou can bet the effects of compe-tition on this emerging marketwill be felt pretty soon.

I don�t have all the answersbut I�m working on it, especiallyif I can bring value to you via theBookstall. In this issue, I thoughtI�d attempt a price comparisonbetween those suppliers whooffer online access to censusrecords using pre-paymentvouchers.

� 1901 VouchersBack in those far-off days of

2002, when online access to acensus for England and Walesbecame a reality, I offered theirpre-payment vouchers on theBookstall. They proved to be verypopular. But further develop-ments failed to materialise onthat site; other suppliers havesince filled the gap, interest inthe vouchers waned and I drop-

ped them from my Price List.Well, they�re back and they�renow even better value, with a 15per cent members� discount.

QinetiQ, the originaldevelopers, finally managed todisentangle themselves from thisbusiness and sold the lot to GenesReunited. They, in turn, werebought by the UK televisionbroadcaster, ITV. They want your

eyeballs, whether it�s on a televi-sion screen or a computermonitor � but mostly they wantyour money! What it should alsomean is that there will be futureinvestment in the site. You mighthave noticed that they�ve alreadyadded access to the GRO Indexes.We await further developments.

What�s this got to do withvouchers? Well, GR are giving thesite, www.1901censusonline.com,a makeover and that includes thevouchers. They now come in afancy new design but basicallythey�re the same as before,although there is now an expirydate on the card itself: a £5voucher will buy you 500 unitswhich will last six months fromfirst use, and a census image ispriced at 75 units. With members�discount, this means each imagewill actually be priced at 63.75p.

� AncestryNow undoubtedly the big

player, with masses of previousinvestment under their belt,Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk)

has vouchers that let you see 10census pages (image views), butthere�s no marked denominationon the voucher itself. Given theusual discounts offered totraders, the face value seems torepresent a retail price of about£5 and the members� price is£4.50. So, that means a censuspage costs you 45p, making anAncestry voucher clearly bettervalue for money than Genes-

Reunited and you also have thefull range of all the Victoriancensuses to choose from.

Now, there�s a bit of a catchhere. The credit on an Ancestryvoucher lasts just 14 days fromfirst use, after which you�ll loseany outstanding credit unless youtop it up with another one, soyou�d better be well organised.Added to which, and as withGenes Reunited, each voucherhas a printed expiry date afterwhich you can�t return the card,even if you don�t use it. I can�thelp feeling that Ancestry intro-duced their vouchers underpressure from The NationalArchives so that they fulfilled thecondition of universal access (i.e.,you don�t need a credit card).They would much rather yousigned up to a subscription,which can be automated and haslower administrative costs, not tomention a higher price tag.

� 1837onlineYou don�t have to go to many

family history events are spon-sored by 1837online.com beforeyou realise that this firm(www.1837online.com) has com-mitted significant funds toestablishing a presence in thismarket. They�re still competingfor market share but they seemto be in it for the long haul. I�vealso been told that they�veposted a �For Sale� sign, whicheither means they�re looking for

Increasingcompetitionwill affectemerginggenealogymarket


more funds for future investmentor the original owners are look-ing to cash in. Time will tell.

1837online vouchers have aface value of £5 and that�s 50units (so, a unit is 10p), whichlasts for 90 days from first use. Viewing a census page will set

you back just three units, mean-ing that each page is priced at30p, but for a Guild member, thatcomes down to 27p. This has tomake 1837online my Best Buy forcensus images, but they�re cur-rently offering just the 1861 and1891 censuses, so they have someway to go before they catchAncestry. Of course, they haveother records, and these can alsobe accessed using the credits onyour voucher.

� British OriginsI find this site(www.britishorigins.com) intrigu-ing, and I�ve included it here notbecause they offer vouchers(which they don�t), but becausethey offer an online census. Theyseem to take their businessdevelopment at a much slowerpace (less money for investment,perhaps?) and, as I write this,with 27 counties available in their1841 census, they�re a little pasthalfway through the full list ofcounties, with bold claims aboutthe quality of their transcription.Their 1871 census is also underway, but they currently have just10 searchable counties. Access tothe site is by subscription, at aprice which compares very wellagainst other sites. Interestingly,British Origins don�t hold thecopyright to their census indexes(arguably the most crucial bit ofonline access); that�s held by theircontractor, IIM Inc., based inUtah.

� Scotland�s PeopleBut what about Scotland, I

hear some of you say? Well, I�mnot a big user of Scottish records

and I hadn�t heard of vouchersbeing offered but I thought I�dtake a look at Scotland�s People,www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk It�sinteresting, isn�t it, that the Scotshave decided to retain commer-cial rights to their records? Ifound this in their FrequentlyAsked Questions section:

�� Can I pay without a credit/debit card?

�� No. Payment may only bemade by credit or debit card atthe moment, but other methodsof payment may be available inthe future, e.g. vouchers.�

I wonder? Watch this space...

What�s new, what�s bigI�ve mentioned one new item

already, the Ancestry vouchers.But one item that proved to bevery popular at the Guild Confer-ence was Your Maps Online 3, acollection of over 500 old mapson 2 CDs. It�s priced at an attrac-tive £22.50 to Guild members,and offers county and town mapsat different times and alsoincludes some non-UK locations.

Those of you who missedDavid Hawkings� fascinating ram-ble among fire insurance recordsat the conference may like to pickup the details from his book, FireInsurance Records. David coversthe history of fire insurance and

reveals that it wasn�t just the richand famous who took precau-tions to safeguard their estatesand possessions, but their tenantsare frequently mentioned andthere were plenty of small timetraders and craftsmen, with prop-erty and equipment to protect,who appear.

There is a new Price List withthis Journal and there are a fewminor adjustments, so please

make sure you refer to it whenyou place your order.

Ron Woodhouse, our NorthernBookstall Manager, took theGuild Bookstall to Sheffield andthe Guild�s seminar at Manchesterand, as well as the Guild Confer-ence in Yarnfield, I�ve been to:Hereford; Tuffley, Gloucs;Worthing, Sussex; the SoG FamilyHistory Show at Westminster andMaidstone, Kent. Other membershave represented us at the SAGShowcase in Sydney, Buxton FHFair, and the South AyrshireHistory Fair. Phew!

Where we�re goingAnd, of course, it doesn�t stop

there With my fingers crossedthat Ron and I don�t blow a gas-ket, here�s the current plan forthe next month or two:

� Kent FHS Open Day Maidstone, Kent, Sat, July 15� Bucks FHS Open Day Aylesbury, Bucks, Sat, July 29� FFHS Conference Northampton, Sun Sept 3� HGS Open Day Horndean, Hants, Sun, Sept 24� West Middlesex FHS Open Day, Hampton, Sun Oct 1And there may be more! I

know it may seem we�re terriblybusy, but if you�re in the area,please come and see us.

Now a big �thank you� to allthose who�ve helped to representthe Guild recently, on the Book-stall and elsewhere. Withapologies in advance for anyone Imiss, I�d like to thank: Trish Bliss,Polly Rubery, Paul Millington,Penny McKay, John Woodger,Ingrid Salkeld, Ken Grubb, HelenWilliams, Ken Toll, Sue Atkins,Barbara Harvey, Judy Cooper,Kirsty Gray, Roy Rayment, CliffKemball, Victor Medlock, JimFilby, Rowan Tanner, Vida Lyne,Judith Hurst, Iain Kennedy, JimFloyd and Lynette Begg. What amagnificent team!

If you�d like to contact Howardabout any of the items he holdson the Bookstall or to volunteerto help, you can write to him [email protected], or7 Amber Hill, Camberley, Surrey,GU15 1EB. ❍


recent discussion on theGuild Forum questionedwhether the increasingavailability of online

information was killing off thebuzz of excitement gained fromchasing elusive ONS information.I would like to suggest that thereis a sure-fire way of rekindlingthe interest � undertake or helpwith a Marriage Challenge (MC).

Last autumn we undertook aChallenge for the ChichesterRegistration District (RD), and wehave just done one on HorshamRD, with considerable help fromJohn Fawssett.

So where is the thrill in spend-ing hours in front of a microfilmor fiche reader looking at parishrecords? That�s what we used todo 20 years ago; information ismore readily available nowadaysat the click of a mouse. Of course,there is the thrill of the chase �how many of the submitted mar-riages could we find? However Isuggest there is so much more tobe gained from an MC.

Horsham RD was a largely ruralarea in West Sussex, comprisingone fair-sized market town sur-rounded by rural parishes wherethe main occupation was agricul-ture. However, it does includeCrawley, the town now close toGatwick airport. Horsham RDcontains parishes where mygrandparents, parents andextended family come from. So Iknow the area well and haveresearched extensively there. Butan MC gives you the chance togain a better understanding ofan area and highlight social andeconomic changes.

Six of the marriages we weresearching were duplicated, onemember looking for the husband,

one for the wife, the first indi-cation of the inter-relationship offamilies. However, I was surprisedat the number of times a foundmarriage had a spouse with asurname linked to my own trees.

Some members submitted anumber of marriages for thesame name spanning half a cen-tury or more. Finding the marri-ages of parents, then theirchildren and even grandchildren,sometimes in the same parish,sometimes in neighbouring par-ishes, mirrored the mobility, orlack of it, in my own family.

MobilityAs the 19th century pro-

gressed, mobility increased. Atfirst, the only out-of-parish marri-ages seemed to be of servantsfrom different home parishesworking in large houses, or theoccasional soldier or sailor postedto the area or on leave. But, withimprovements in transport, marri-ages became more commonbetween spouses from more dis-tant parishes.

Economic change resulted indifferent work for men. In thelate 1830s and 1840s most maleswere agricultural labourers orhad jobs connected to the land,such as carters, grooms, bailiffs orgardeners, with the occasionaltradesman, baker, shoemaker ordraper. By the 1880s and 1890sthe trades were beginning tochange, with more shopkeepers,letter carriers and policemenbeginning to appear.

The building of the railwayshad a significant effect on workand life patterns. With new linksto the South Coast and London,the brickworks at Warnhamincreased in importance, Hor-

sham began to expand and theCrawley area to develop. Thecertificates reflect this, with morebrickworkers, bricklayers, plas-terers, builders and railwayworkers, and a new church wasopened at West Crawley in 1900.

The start of the 20th centurysaw more working brides. Manywomen stayed at home to helptheir mothers and look afteryounger siblings in the 19th cen-tury and there was only theoccasional domestic servantrecorded. But by 1910 we getAssistant School Mistresses andProfessional Dressmakers appear-ing. This also highlights theimprovement in educationalstandards. Many brides, groomsand witnesses could only signtheir mark at the start of the per-iod. But as the 19th centuryprogressed, the handwritingimproved from the scrawl of justlearning to write your name tothe copperplate signature.

The Challenge also piqued myinterest in specific cases. Whenyou find a widow remarrying justa few years after her first marri-age, you ask yourself: �What didher first husband die of and howmany fatherless children was sheleft to care for?�

Vicars and curates in Horshamarea were good at recordingexact ages of brides and grooms.There are few instances of �offull age�. So how come in oursample there were significantnumbers of spinster women mar-rying bachelor men at least 15years younger? Was West Sussexa hot bed of toy boys?

We were seeking a total of 491marriages for 35 Guild members.This number doesn�t comparewith the numbers requested for

How a MarriageChallenge can helpan understandingof social andeconomic changes


Challenges in London or indus-trial areas. However, it is not toolarge to make the task almostendless but enough to mean thatentries are found fairly quickly.

Members from Canada, theUSA, Australia and South Africa,as well as the UK, requested look-ups. We gained considerablesatisfaction in finding informa-tion for members who would findit very difficult to research theserecords themselves. There waseven greater enjoyment in learn-ing much more about a specificarea, its people and their lives.

I am sure undertaking aMarriage Challenge in any areawould be just as interesting. Ifyou get a chance to undertake aChallenge or help with one, havea go. ❍

ONE OF the Guild�s most under-used resources is its library. Infact, the Guild has two libraries �one holding all the paper mater-ial and the E-Library, which holdsall the Guild�s digitised material.

In the past the library materialhas technically been available toGuild members to borrow onloan. In practice, the existence ofthe library and its content has notin recent years been well publi-cised and, therefore, not effec-tively used by its members.Recent developments will mean

these resources should be moreeffectively used in future.

The librarian ([email protected]) is responsible formaintaining and enhancing theGuild�s paper library. At this year�sConference I took on the respon-sibility. Hopefully, this additionalrole will be a temporary one, as Ihave set my first task as finding areplacement. However, I believemuch more can be done with theGuild�s library material and thatthe Guild needs someone to liasewith the E-Librarian to maximisethe services to members.

Since taking on the role, I haveundertaken an inventory of thepaper material. I have been ableto establish that we currentlyhold 91 reference books, 82genealogical books and 30 one-name study books. The referencebooks include include Debrett�sPeople of Today 1997, ColumbiaCollege Alumni Directory 1988,The Knox Alumnus CentenaryDirectory 1837-1937, the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technologyalumni Register 1948, the Massa-chusetts�s Maritime Academy1891�1991 Alumni Directory 1991and the West Point 1969 Registerof Graduates and Former Cadets1802�1969. Some of the oldesttitles include the first edition ofThe Genealogist (July 1875), theEast Anglian magazine (1864�1868, incomplete) and the Eas-tern Counties magazine (1864�1872, incomplete).

The genealogical books com-prise an odd assortment rangingfrom The Custody of LocalRecords of Wales (1931) toArmagh Families (2003). I plan toproduce a full list of books some-time in the future, so thatmembers can borrow them.

The one-name study bookscomprise all the ONS booksdonated to the Guild and rangefrom The Family History of Kerinin Australia 1854�1972 (1972) to

New developments in Guild LibrariesBy Cliff Kemball

Proposed Guild Probate IndexAT ITS recent meeting, the Guild Committee discussed a proposal fora potential new resource to benefit members � a Guild Probate Index.This draws on the same idea as the Guild Marriage Index in thatmembers can search for their surname among entries submitted byother members. If the search is successful, there is a strong possibilitythere will be information to exchange between the searcher and thesubmitter. It is amazing what a will can reveal and the implicationsthis can have for all Guild members.

The aim of the Guild Probate Index is to capture references toindividuals that may have been recorded by members. The indexwould exclude references where the surname is the same as that ofthe deceased, e.g. where John Loverock makes a bequest to anotherLoverock, since such information is only likely to be of interest to theLoverock one-name study who has submitted the information.Grants of probate and letters of administration may contain a varietyof references which may be of interest to a Guild Probate index, i.e.executors, beneficiaries, witnesses and trustees

At present, the scope of the project is uncertain and there are stilla number of issues to be resolved � for instance, date range. It islikely the index would start at earliest times and go beyond theestablishment of the civil Court of Probate, known as the PrincipalRegistry (for England and Wales) in 1858. Entries in the recent pastmay be excluded for privacy reasons. Civil and ecclesiastical probatecourts in England, Wales and Scotland are likely to be included. It islikely that members can include wills other than from their own ONS.A format for the submission of the data is still to be agreed.

The Guild Committee is aware members have generally collectedless information regarding probate than, for instance, civil registra-tion data and is seeking members� opinions as to whether this is aviable project. The Committee is also interested as to whether thereare any volunteers to help progress this project. The suggested rolesare: liaison with members and input data advisor. Would you beprepared to submit your data to this new project (but please do NOTsend any data yet) or would you like to volunteer to help? In eithercase, please contact Barbara Harvey (member 2616), 15 Park Avenue,St Albans, Herts AL1 4PB or e-mail [email protected] ❍


erhaps I am beingunduly pessimistic, but Isometimes wonder if thetime is approaching

when family historians will needa government licence just tocarry on their hobby.

I spoke recently to a lady whohas been consulting the electoralregisters at her local library forsome years. These are, as weknow, a useful resource for dis-covering how long ancestorslived at a particular address.

However, she was furious todiscover the librarian had takenit upon himself to withdraw allthe registers from the publicshelves and lock them away.Now, every time she wants toconsult a volume she has to makespecial application and beallowed to consult them onlyunder supervision. To add insultto injury, he told her that infuture she might have to proveshe is a genuine researcher!

We are not talking here aboutcurrent or even recent electoralregisters, but the older ones �some of them 40 or 50 years old.The excuse given was new regu-lations and issues under the DataProtection Act. Well, what else?This law has been used so oftenby over-zealous bureaucrats tojustify removing information thatought rightly to be in the publicdomain that it has become ajoke.

It seems that, following thechange in 2002 to full and editedregisters, there is uncertaintyabout how the rules concerningaccess to the older registersshould be applied. Some librariesand record offices still have themon the open shelves, while othersare placing restrictions on them.This bodes no good for anybody� least of all family historians.

Let�s hope this bureaucraticconfusion is sorted out � or willwe, as I suggested, eventuallyhave to be licensed? ❍

The Family of Dummer (7th edi-tion 2005). Again, I plan toprovide members with a list of allONS books held by the Guild.While it may be possible to loansome of these books out, someare very heavy and the p&p costsare likely to be relatively high.

Please contact me [email protected] or writeto me at 168 Green Lane, Chis-lehurst, Kent, BR7 6AY, if youhave any suggestions for refer-ence books the Guild couldpurchase to assist members intheir research. Your suggestionswill assist me in producing a bud-get for the 2006-7 financial year.

E-LibraryThe Guild�s Library of One-

Name Studies (LOONS) waslaunched at the Annual Confer-ence. Colin Pattrick([email protected]) is theE-librarian responsible for main-taining the digitised material.The E-Library now has over 4,700titles covering in excess of130,000 pages of material relat-ing to 146 one-name studies. Themajority is held in PDF searchabledocuments. This means that, oncethe digitisation project is com-pleted, it will be possible to offera service to members to searchfor the existence of their one-names. With Acrobat Reader 7 it

is possible to search the wholedirectory in which the E-Library isheld. However, searches will onlybe allowable where the origina-tors have provided authority torelease the material. So far, the E-Librarian has received authoritiesfrom 27 originators. The arrange-ment for searching the LOONS isstill under consideration, but atrial search for Committee mem-bers� names identified 86 hits forsix out of the 14.

Some of the owners of mater-ial have reservations aboutproviding release authority. Thisis mainly because they are eitherunsure about what the authoritywill mean or they want to knowwhich members have been pro-vided with details of theirmaterial. Not surprisingly, theywant to maintain contact withsuch members, so they can pro-vide further information aboutthe searched name.

The majority of one-namestudy newsletters donated to theGuild are produced in electronicformat. These donations arebeing added to the LOONS andwill become part of the sear-chable material. A few authorsare still supplying their one-namestudy newsletters in paper for-mats, although it is hoped theseauthors will supply such materialin digitised formats in future. ❍

WINNERS of the Guild Awards for Websites, Profiles and One-NamePublications were announced during the AGM at Yarnfield Park,Staffordshire, as follows...

WEBSITE: 1st Gander, www.gander-name.info, entered by DesGander (Member 862).

2nd Speidel, www.speidelfamilygenealogy.com, entered by JamesSpidle (Member 4304).

3rd Treverton, www.treverton.net, entered by Larry Treverton(Member 3314).

Commended: Uridge, www.uridge.org, entered by Teresa Pask(Member 293); Pask, www.pask.org.uk, entered by Stuart Pask(Member 4078); Grubb, www.grubb-family.org.uk entered by KenGrubb (Member 2970).

PROFILE: 1st Benham, entered by Stephen Benham (Member 3620).2nd Heppenstall, entered by David Mellor (Member 3823).3rd Tudbury, entered by Jennifer Tudbury (Member 3571).Judges were Peter Walker, Guild Chairman; Penny Denby, profes-

sional website designer; and Sheila Yeo, winner in 2005.ONE-NAME PUBLICATIONS: 1st Grubb; 2nd Stonehewer; 3rd Perrot.

Commended: Holditch, Metcalf, Shreeve and Soul.Judges were Chris Braund and Janet Few of the Braund Society, last

year�s winners, and Cliff Woolley, an independent consultant designer.

Regional Representatives as at June 1 2006

THIS IS the full list of the Guild�s Regional Representatives.The Representatives� Guild membership numbers are shownalongside each one and the contact postal addresses and,where given, telephone numbers can be found in the GuildRegister, either the paperback or online version.

BEDFORDSHIRE : Mr Peter W Hagger (4177)[email protected]

BERKSHIRE : Mrs Kirsty Gray (4014)[email protected]

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE : Dr Wendy Archer (3)[email protected]

CAMBRIDGESHIRE : Mr Peter W Hagger (4177)[email protected]

CHESHIRE : Mr H Gordon Adshead (3331)[email protected]

CORNWALL : Mrs Sharon Symons (3496) [email protected]

CUMBRIA : Ms Anne Nichols (4240)[email protected]

DERBYSHIRE : Mr Ronald S Duckett (1333)[email protected]

DEVON NORTH : Mr C Braund (594)[email protected]

DEVON SOUTH : Mrs Maureen Selley (3445)[email protected]

DORSET : Col Iain Swinnerton (127)[email protected]

DURHAM : Mrs Fiona Mitford (3931)[email protected]

ESSEX AND EAST LONDON : Mr Kevin H Cole (3549)[email protected]

GLOUCESTERSHIRE : Mrs Elizabeth C Cooke (4077)[email protected]

HAMPSHIRE : Vacant

HEREFORDSHIRE : Mrs Polly M Rubery (278)[email protected]

HERTFORDSHIRE & NORTH LONDON : Mrs Barbara Harvey (2616)[email protected]

ISLE OF WIGHT : Mr C Braund (594)[email protected]

KENT & SOUTH EAST LONDON : Mr Clifford R Kemball (3389) [email protected]

LANCASHIRE : Miss Susan Atkins (1961)[email protected]

LEICESTERSHIRE : Vacant

LINCOLNSHIRE : Mr John P Laws (674)[email protected]

NORFOLK : Vacant

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE : Mrs Jenny Reeve (3778)[email protected]

NORTHUMBERLAND : Mrs Fiona Mitford (3931)[email protected]

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE : Dr David H Mellor (3823)[email protected]

OXFORDSHIRE : Dr Wendy Archer (3)[email protected]

SHROPSHIRE : Dr Colin H Stevenson (2887)[email protected]

SOMERSET : Mr Kenneth W Dilkes (2318)[email protected]

STAFFORDSHIRE : Mr Ronald S Duckett (1333)[email protected]

SUFFOLK : Mrs Mary A Rix (1328)[email protected]

SURREY AND WEST LONDON : Mr Martin P Gegg (1893)[email protected]

SUSSEX EAST : Mr Richard Akhurst (187)[email protected]

SUSSEX WEST : Mr Richard W Chilvers (2216)[email protected]

WARWICKSHIRE : Mrs Patricia A Bliss (3545)[email protected]

WILTSHIRE : Mr Richard Moore (1291)[email protected]

WORCESTERSHIRE : Mrs Polly M Rubery (278)[email protected]

YORKSHIRE EAST : Mr Frank Hakney (1832)[email protected]

YORKSHIRE NORTH : Mr Pete Redwood (3532)[email protected]

YORKSHIRE WEST : Mr Ronald Woodhouse (4126)[email protected]

IRELAND : Mr Michael Merrigan (3351)[email protected]

SCOTLAND ABERDEEN : Dr Stephen D K Baguley (3528)[email protected]

SCOTLAND NORTH : Mr Graham Tuley (437)[email protected]

SCOTLAND SOUTH : Dr Jim D Floyd (2619)[email protected]

WALES (NORTH & MID) : Mr Geoff Riggs (2408)[email protected]

WALES (SOUTH & WEST) : Mr Geoff Riggs (2408)[email protected]

AUSTRALIA NORTH & WEST : Mr Garry K Stubbs (4287)[email protected]

AUSTRALIA NORTH EAST : Mrs Lynette Begg (4139)[email protected]

AUSTRALIA SOUTH EAST : Mr David K Evans (3062)[email protected]

CANADA EAST : Mr Dick Chandler (2767)[email protected]

CANADA WEST : Mr Dick Chandler (2767)[email protected]

NEW ZEALAND : Mrs Lily C Baker (751)[email protected]

SOUTH AFRICA : Mr Brian P Spurr (1466)[email protected]

UNITED STATES CENTRAL : Dr Toni R Turk (3130)[email protected]

UNITED STATES NORTH EAST : Mr Robert J Young (2940)[email protected]

UNITED STATES SOUTH EAST : Dr John H Cookson (1110)[email protected]

UNITED STATES WEST : Mrs Shirley Saunders (4252)[email protected]

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Journal of One-Name Studies July�September 2006Quarterly publication of the Guild of One-Name StudiesISSN 0262-4842 £2.00 when sold to non-members

ANOTHER excellent Guild seminar was held on Saturday, May 27, in the John RylandsLibrary, University of Manchester. Lectures were given on Methodist archives, thecotton industry and migrant workers. Pictures show (top) Seminar Organiser SandraTurner with some of the audience; (above left) Sandra welcoming an attendee, withLancashire Regional Rep Susan Atkins and Committee member Steven Whitaker;(above right) speaker Peter Park. For a full report of the seminar see page 18.

North-West Seminar in Manchester

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