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New surname profiling website

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mgnv

mgnv Report 2 Sep 2008 06:19

I don't have a feel for UK postal codes - they didn't exist in my day, and I haven't tried the site - it's shut down till 2 am tomorrow, but you've got to do something like that. E.g., take a typical set of cockney names (Davies, Evans, Jones, LLoyd, Morgan, Rees, Thomas, Williams). There's only one county in the UK with more of these guys than Middlesex (viz, Glamorgan), but if you don't take some account of population, you wind up with this sort of rubbish. In fact, the 1881 Middx population of these 8 names exceeds the population of 6 of the Welsh counties.

Just out of interest, to see a really localized surname, look up hesm*h in 1841.

Heather

Heather Report 1 Sep 2008 22:05

Not sure what you mean mgnv?

The point I was making was that when I spoke to the creators of the website they admitted that it was based on the number of people living within a postcode district. hence if your lot were one family of five on a Shetland Island (or in my case on a Yorkshire Moor) against a total population of 20 then it showed up as the greatest concentration of your surname when in fact it was a few strays.

The bulk of my lot were in Norfolk but about 300 had migrated and grown to a total of c300 in London by the 1881 - which census they had used for the mapping - but they werent even shown as existing because they were being compared with the huge population in that area.

mgnv

mgnv Report 1 Sep 2008 20:40

The north begins at Watford, eh.

Heather

Heather Report 31 Aug 2008 14:08

This isnt the same as that other rubbish one that came out a year or two back is it, where you can have the biggest percentage of your name in the highlands of Scotland if only 2 people are there out of a population of 20? But if you have 300 in London it doesnt even show as a percentage of such a large population.

Worse than useless.

Janet 693215

Janet 693215 Report 31 Aug 2008 12:46

I think they are a victim of their publicity machine.

Other surname websites are available

www.taliesin-arlein.net
for surnames in England and Wales (also covers Welsh mariners and other interesting stuff)

www.britishsurnames.co.uk
which will tell you where they were from the 1881 census and in 1998

ElizabethK

ElizabethK Report 30 Aug 2008 12:53

It was announced on Radio 4 this morning so I expect it will be busy!!

KeithInFujairah

KeithInFujairah Report 30 Aug 2008 11:03

Maureen I am getting database busy error messages as well.

Porkie_Pie

Porkie_Pie Report 30 Aug 2008 10:49

Just had a look, Works fine for me.

Roy

Maureen

Maureen Report 30 Aug 2008 10:31

I have just read in the Daily Mail about a new website launched today that profiles surnames. Has anyone seen the article & tried to access the site yet? I have but am getting error messages!

www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames

Maureen