Created by Julie Goucher 2019

When I registered the surname of Butcher with the Guild of One-Name Studies back in 2016 I had already been working on the surname.

Not just my own links to the surname, but also the other facets of the study, and in particular the distribution of the surname across both the UK and the world.

Initially I did not register any variants, that was until I came across a divorce record for a couple with the surname Butchers. I had been placidly recording the Butchers references from the various databases and documents for years, just in case. As I read through the divorce record the male advised that he had married under the surname of Butcher and that was incorrect, his surname was Butchers. I then did a quick check of the data on FreeBMD for the surname Butchers.

From that information I drew the conclusion that Butchers was a corruption of the surname Butcher I therefore added it to my registration. All has been well with the study, until today…..

I came across an obituary for the surname BACHAR in a west country newspaper. I wondered if that could be a variant from the surname of Butcher taking into account a potential strong accent from the west country. I made a note of the obit, adding it to my database. I then did a quick check on FreeBMD, entering on the surname and searching all events and all England and Wales.

The results were interesting. There were 16 references across England and Wales, none before 1962. The results were also spread out, Devon, Oxford, Hampstead and parts of Essex. At this point I am going to include them in a separate database and upload to the Butcher website. Just from some of the first names, I suspect this is a Jewish family but only time and research will tell.