A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – G is for Reasons to be Global,1,2,3….

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Julie Goucher
A2Z [2021] BADGE

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

The Guild of One-Name Studies has the requirement that all registered surnames should be researched globally. That is a big commitment, but the requirement is a just one as the following will show. There is no expectation on how soon your study will be global, just that it will be, at some point.

  1. With so much migration across the globe due to: 
    1. Empires spreading, and leading to better & different opportunities.
    2. Fleeing Europe due to war and persecution etc
    3. Wanting a better life
  2. These feed into this point: Some families migrated, increased the family size through births overseas, then the whole family returning to the UK. You might establish the increase in the family through a census, but that might not always be possible. Certainly in England and Wales after the 1921 Census, there is going to be limited access – 1931 Census was destroyed during the Second World War, there was no 1941 Census due to the war and the 1951 will not be available until 2052. Therefore the nearest document in the 1939 Register.
  3. Unless your study is global you will not know if you have “everyone”. People were more migratory than we think. Furthermore, not everyone migrated in a straight line. Some deviated from the straight path and that might add to the timeline.

Here are a few examples:

  • ELSTONE & PARSLOW – My Grandmother’s Aunt, Eliza Elstone with her husband Joseph Parslow migrated to Canada. The couple married in 1887 in Surrey. Their first three children were born in Ontario. They returned to England, settled in Woking, raising their children and had an additional child born in Surrey. I have not explored the family sufficiently to identify why they migrated or what made them return to England.
  • WORSHIP & GOUCHER – My husband’s Grandparent, Lilian Worship and Ernest Goucher married in 1920. Ernest had served in the Royal Navy during the first world war and following his marriage he and Lilian, together with their 3 year old Derek, my late father in law headed across the Atlantic to Ontario where Ernest trained sea cadets. They returned to England and settled in the north east of England. The trunk which travelled with them now resides in my loft!
  • ORLANDO & CASTELLI – Salvatore Orlando sailed from Palmero to New York in 1913 leaving his wife Calogera Castelli in Sutera with his daughter, Calogera Orlando who was a new born. Salvatore left Sutera in Sicily, his home town to work and build up a nest egg of savings so he could provide for his family. Sadly in 1919, aged just 6 years little Calogera died. Her father still in the United States. Salvatore did return home as he planned.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Elstone, Genealogy, Goacher/Goucher, One-Name Studies, Orlando One-Name Study, Parslow, Worship One-Name Study | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – Frugal Surname Research

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Julie Goucher

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

The online genealogical arena is overwhelmed with the provisions available to us. Whatever material I share here is a mere fraction of what is available online; and the material that is online is a fraction of the material in existence.

We are limited by our imaginations in the way we use the provisions available and where we look to get a glimmer of information to feed our genealogical habits.

The concept of a One-Name Study, or a surname project is one where the registrant with the Guild of One-Name Studies may choose to gather core material reflecting the name. Having gathered that information, there is no requirement to reconstruct families, though many do, including those with relatively large studies.

Given the registrant is seeking to locate material on a global scale, though there is no time pressures to do so, it can be costly to achieve. Today I have listed a few sites that are worthy of visiting and these are either free, or relatively low cost:

Next month I hope to share some hints and tips for using these sites to advance any research. Those pertaining to UK and Ireland will be found HERE and those relating to Continental Europe will appear HERE.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Genealogy | 3 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – E is for Ephemera with Surname Research

Posted on April 6, 2021 by Julie Goucher
A2Z [2021] BADGE

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Over the years I have collected “stuff” that has a link to my One-Name studies. I try not to accumulate items that are a hassle to store, but I have caved every now and again! Typically these things are post cards where the recipient had the surname Butcher. Some I have bought, others I have been given. I have an eBay search filter set up for the name. Each day an email plops into my inbox that tells me what material is newly listed, I can then look and plan to schedule a bid.

There is also an eBay filter for the Orlando study and Sutera which is the Commune that my family come from. These add a different dimension to the study and I often use these as a starting point to research further.

As I said, on occasions I have caved or got carried away. I own a lovely selection of Orlando Cherry Brandy bottles. They are  currently living on my dining room windowsill.

Orlando Cherry Brandy pots – Julie Goucher personal collection
Orlando Cherry Brandy pots – Julie Goucher personal collection

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Orlando One-Name Study | 1 Comment

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – D is for Delving Deep with Surname Research.

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Julie Goucher

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

In some ways the post today builds on the post for A – Advanced One-Name Studies. Today we look at delving deep, not just in depth but also breadth of a topic, adding a new dimension to our research.

In one of the chat sessions that accompanied the Advanced One-Name Studies course, we looked at the usefulness of timelines, which enable us to see what information we have and what information is missing. As part of that discussion we looked at marriages and the legalities of it. Marriage Law for Genealogists written by Rebecca Probert proved on page 110 that marriage could take place with girls at the age of 12 and boys aged 14. In part this was a marriage contract with family lands and assets front and centre of any marriage, not love and happiness – it was business and the ability to be connected with others of the same social standing. 

Generally speaking we research backwards and from a marriage we expect to find a birth around 20-25 years earlier, the same applies to a marriage, we look around about 20-25 years later from a birth, but if the family were of some social standing, or had land or other financial means, then the dates could be out by as much as a decade. I talked about this in more detail HERE.

Later in this series we explore reconstructing families, and whilst some do this for their study, others do not. There is no right or wrong way to develop a study. If you choose not to build families then you likely get a sense of the numbers and you may well focus on other elements for your study.

Whilst I do reconstruct families I do tend to do this for particular counties, some of which stem from my own family – currently I am focusing on the following:

BUTCHER Study – 

  • Surrey and Sussex – Counties in England
  • Suffolk – County in England
  • Perth – Australia
  • Tasmania – Australia
  • British Columbia – Canada

ORLANDO Study – 

  • Sicily – Italy
  • Birmingham – Alabama
  • New Orleans – Louisiana
  • New York – New York State
  • Surrey – County in England

I am also heavily focusing on migration from Italy to other Countries, in particular post Second World War. 

Between 1861 and 1985, 29,036,000 Italians migrated from Italy and Sicily – Source “As fit as a Fish, the English and Italians revealed” by Laura Tosi and Peter Hunt.

I recommend this book, those of us with mixed heritage will likely raise a smile.

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Advanced One-Name Studies (Pharos Course 902), Genealogy, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), Non-British Surnames, One-Name Studies, Practicalities of a One-Name Studies (Pharos Course 903) | Leave a comment

Italian Surname Series – Saia and Saja

Posted on April 4, 2021 by Julie Goucher
Italian Surname Series

Created by Julie Goucher May 2018

One of the tasks in the Introduction to One-Name Studies course is to consider the meanings of the surname of interest, and in some cases there is more than one meaning and more that one country of origin.

Having written about the Saia and Saja surname which appears in my family, I did some long overdue research, which I thought I would share because it illustrates perfectly why it is useful to understand the origins of the Surname and, to understand the culture and history associated with it. Also remember, that in the Italian alphabet there are fewer letters and the letters I and J are interchangeable.

Here is the information relating to Saia:

  • Origin of southern Italy and from a adapted version of the personal (given) name of Isaia (Isaiah) or Osaia (Hosea).
  • The website www.names.org indicates the surname means shadow and is of Pakistani origin
  • The website www.nameyourroots.com indicates the surname maybe of Jewish origin from the Jewish communities of Spain.
  • The website www.nordicnames.de says the surname is a variant of Saija and is of Finnish origin.

Meanwhile the name of Saja is:

  • This surname is recorded in 29 countries across the globe according to Namesepidia, with the name of Arabic origin and means eloquent and pleasant face
  • The website www.names.org indicates the surname means the night is beautiful and quiet. The origins are also listed as Arabic
  • There is also the suggestion that the name is a Muslim boys name
  • The website www.dbs.anumuseum.org.il suggests that the name is a latinised Slovakian name which is a version of the Jewish family name Modriensis, recorded in 1709 with Saja and Lasarus Modriensis. It then goes onto to suggest that it is a Germanised Slovak name formed from Modreiner and Modrainer from 1735 and 1747 respectively.

From reading Forebears.io is appears that the surname of Saja can be found in Indonesia and Poland. There is no earlier demographic information prior to 2014 – the map for SAJA can be found HERE and the map for SAIA can be found HERE also 2014.

The Italian distribution maps from Gens.info show the surnames across Sicily and Italy.

Distribution map created from Gens,info
Distribution map created from Gens,info

An historical overview of Sicily can be found HERE which explains the influences of many other nations.

Posted in Genealogy, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), Italian Surname Series, Italy, Non-British Surnames, Saia & Saja, Surnames | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – C is for Considerations for Surname Research.

Posted on April 3, 2021 by Julie Goucher

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

This is my third instalment of the A-Z Challenge 2021. You can visit other participants HERE.  You can follow along my posts HERE.

There are a great many consideration relevant to surname research when you first begin looking at the wider picture of surnames or looking specifically at a particular surname. 

Copyright – Julie Goucher 2021

The image above is from my presentation Pursuing Surnames. It does look quite faint, but beneath the image I list  the various elements. We talk about some of these in the new Pharos Course, Researching Ancestors in Continental Europe (750). You can download a clearer image HERE. The relevance to your surname will vary depending on the origins of the surname.

  • Foundlings and illegitimacy 
  • Naming conventions  – Given name and surnames (Iberian Countries)
  • Religion practiced
  • History of the Country
  • Language
  • Alphabet
  • Dialects
  • DNA
  • Geography
  • Borders
  • Connections to other European Countries and European Empires

Individuals might take name of another family member, a step father or an alias. Or there might be influences of other factors, such as a Detto in the case of Italian surnames. The alphabet is also potentially different. In Italy, there are fewer letter and the letters of I and J are interchangeable, but how interchangeable?  Below is the surname distribution maps for both SAIA and SAJA surnames, created with Gens.info – You can see the most common surname of the two, why is that?

Distribution map created from Gens,info
Distribution map created from Gens,info

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Advanced One-Name Studies (Pharos Course 902), Genealogy, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies, Saia & Saja | Leave a comment

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – B is for Books and Bibliography

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Julie Goucher

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

The online world has provided the potential for books outside of their copyright to be available to researchers. Those providers offering access FREE are:

……. And, there may well be others. If you know of any please do leave a comment.

In the Introduction to One-Name Studies course, we explore the broad topic of the history of surnames. Do those earlier views by scholars of the times remain true today, or has the understanding evolved? If it has evolved, then the evolution is part of the history to, along with any hypothesis or conclusions drawn. Those researching surnames whose origins are not British, may find there are a mix of similarities with British names and some differences. In which case what drives the similarities and differences, and have they too evolved over time?

Material published previously about specific surnames adds to the history of that surname and are a useful addition to the One-Name Study, regardless of not whether it is registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies

Whether or not the books are available as free downloads or are texts still in print and copyright, they very likely contain a bibliography within the confines of the latter pages. Those bibliographies are incredibly useful as they provide opportunities for further considerations and research. One resource worthy of visiting is Modern British Surnames which is hosted by the Guild of One-Name Studies. The resource is the work of a former member, the late Philip Dance, and you can read about it HERE and how the site came to be relocated. Part of that resource is a Bibliography which can be found HERE. Whilst the title of the site is Modern British Surnames, it does contain information and resource relating the globalisation of surnames.

The online providers linked above, provide opportunities for site users to create accounts, enabling the creation of some form of book collections. To access the Hathi Trust you generally need to be registered with a partnered organisation. If that is not possible, you can sign up as a Friend of the University of Michigan, which is offered FREE of charge and having done so you can login to the books available. You can create collections and make the collections public or private as you wish.  To register as a friend of the University of Michigan click HERE (this is available to all, not just those in the United States).  I am in the process of adding material to my collections which can be found HERE and I will add the link to this site (either under Surname Research or Links) so stay tuned for details!

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Genealogical Resources, Genealogy, Introduction to One-Name Studies (Pharos course 901), One-Name Studies | 5 Comments

A-Z Challenge 2021 – All about Surnames – A is for Advanced One-Name Studies

Posted on April 1, 2021 by Julie Goucher
A2Z [2021] BADGE

Image designed and made available by http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

Advanced One-Name Studies is not something that I have talked much about, so I thought I would delve a little deeper into it as we kick off the #AllAboutSurnames Series.

The Advanced One-Name Studies course builds on the earlier Introduction course and moves into the area of cross discipline research and how that adds another dimension and context to a surname study.

Firstly, we begin with the definition of “advanced” – this could be assumed that it means a study which has been underway for a while, or it could be that a study is already delving deeper into the elements of context. Perhaps a study that has a DNA project, but this could be a DNA project going for a decade or one created in the last few weeks. So it is not enough to have simply ticked a box to say I have this, but that you have whatever is ticked off the list in a more defined way. 

An area of advanced that I have personally been working on involves my ancestor Daniel Butcher, who I have mentioned before., you can read the earlier post HERE. Daniel was born in 1720 in the rural parish of Hascombe, Surrey and baptised in the church at Bramley as the family home was nearer to Bramley church than Hascombe. There is quite a lot of material about Daniel and his family, both the previous generation and once he marries in 1745 in the Sussex parish of Tillington.  That seems perfectly clear, but now we get into muddier water – Daniel we know was 25 years old when he married. The full name of his bride is correct as is the birth of his children, first a daughter in 1761 and then a son in 1775, which I descend from. 

If you were just looking at the timeline, you would be forgiven for thinking that there were several Daniel and Elizabeth’s and I had mixed the children up, but that is not the case, I have the various records which confirm the birth of the children and that is supported further by other documents etc. As I focused on the timeline I became increasingly fixated on not just the details of what I knew to be correct, but on details that I did not have and in some cases would have because the records and information do not exist.

If you read the earlier post you will note that I comment on two things which I consider to be worth exploring (I just need to find the time!):

  1. The age of marriage – we know that Daniel was 25 but we cannot confirm the age of Elizabeth. At the time of the marriage, in 1745 the legal age of marriage was 12 for girls and 14 for boys (source Marriage Law for Genealogists…….by Rebecca Probert)
  2. Early health issues relating to Infertility in the 18th Century – we make an “assumption” that people had children, especially in the age of pre-contraception. That does not necessarily mean that every marriage had children and the reasons may be health related, perhaps infertility caused by a condition that affecting hormonal imbalance. Not forgetting that during this time period there might not have been the awareness of any medical condition existing. There is also the possibility of miscarriage.

These elements are quite interesting and there be some truth in either or both of these. There is more research to do, (isn’t there always?). 

Advanced one-name studies consists of a spectrum of indicators if you will. Not every study will have these within a defined timescale. Indeed, there is no timescale inferred or insisted upon. Another factor is the specific interests of the researcher and the ease of accessing records. There are a few indicators, here are just a few:

  • Objectives of the study
  • DNA Project underway
  • Migration routes are known along with the dates
  • Access to older records such as Manorial Records
  • Background knowledge of the history of surnames within the Country of origin

The Advanced course in One-Name Studies will be taught again in November 2021

Posted in A-Z Challenge 2021 - All About Surnames, Advanced One-Name Studies (Pharos Course 902), Butcher One-Name Study, Genealogy, One-Name Studies, Surnames | 2 Comments

Advanced One-Name Studies Course

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Julie Goucher
Created by Julie Goucher 2018-2019

In November last year I taught the Advanced One-Name Studies course. The course lasts for six weeks, comprises of five lessons and a reading week. Students have the opportunity when signing up for the course to choose the assessed option, with the article assessed by the tutor, which is me.

Students have a window of around two and a half months to complete the article, which can be on any topic related to the surname registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies or being researched.

I was delighted when at the beginning of March my inbox received a series of emails from the students with the articles ready for assessment. They were all marked against the criteria and were equally enjoyable to read. Each one was well researched, pulled together with the originality varying considerably. Each contained citations and a bibliography.

The purpose is not just to write an article for the course, but in doing so, the latter elements of the Seven Pillars, which I have talked about often are met. Publishing material about the study is enabling it to other researchers to be aware of the study and that may very well yield connections and avenues for research.

The published article is a snapshot of research up to a given point. Regardless of that, it is able to be preserved for other researchers in the future.

In my view the students could each use there article as a building block to establish a further body of work. I am not going to share the articles here, doing so without the consent of the students would not be appropriate, but they all did exceedingly well and the grades varied between 80-100%. I am delighted for them.

The Advanced course in One-Name Studies will be taught again in November 2021.

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Census 2021 – #Census2021

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Julie Goucher

I am a firm believer on looking forward, not back which really contradicts the life of a genealogist. The 2021 Census takes place in England and Wales today (Scotland have delayed their Census until 2022) and that has concentrated the thoughts on where and when I appear on a Census from the past and those who appear on those Census with me and are sadly no longer here.

Census 2021 Notice

Census 2021 notice – 2021

On February 21st, the Government circulated a A6 card to each household which said The census is coming. It shared the date and said the completion of the Census was required by law.

Then on 5 March the paper form arrived. The form is addressed to the householder and clearly stated on the front of the form is a household reference number which must be provided to complete the form online.

Continue reading →

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