After investing years of time and energy in the research of your family, you’ll want to ensure the story you uncover stands the test of time. Future generations of your relatives will enjoy and take pride in their heritage, but only if it’s there for them when you no longer are. Our family histories are treasures, and should be preserved as the valuable items they are. Maybe you’ve even used research done by another relative who preceded you. What if they hadn’t left that data behind? If we don’t take steps to preserve our family histories, there is a chance they may fade away. That would be a loss to our legacies, as well as family members who come after us.

Anyone of the following ideas can help you to preserve your family heritage; I use several of them myself. Have a look through them and choose a method or two that best suits your personality and your particular family history. Doing so will ensure that your family legacy is not just an accumulation of data, but a colourful story of your family’s heritage that will be around for generations.

Start a Family Scrapbook

A scrapbook can be a family history in itself, limited only by your imagination and creativity. Scrapbooks can contain photos, documents, family heirlooms, personal letters and whatever else you feel helps to tell the story of your family. You can even scrapbook by subject; a cemetery scrapbook containing photos of tombstones and inscriptions along with obituaries, photos of your ancestors, and their birth and death certificates would be a genealogical treasure in itself. Or you could do a scrapbook focusing on family reunions. If you have a family reunion; take as many photos as you can, and write in all of the information you can get your hands on about the people in them. As I said before, you are only limited by your imagination, but if you need a little inspiration, read our article on Great Tips and Tools for Building Scrapbook Family Trees.

Preserve Family Interviews

In the course of compiling your family history you will interview many interesting relatives who will have numerous entertaining tales to tell about your ancestors. Make sure that you preserve those interviews in an orderly, easy-to-understand format. If you are using a digital recording methods, backup and save copies of your interviews on CD ROMs. Perhaps you could keep them in a decorative case, with the interview transcriptions and notes about your relatives and ancestors accompanying the recordings. Again, there is no limit to what you can add to any of these projects, and if you need a little guidance on how to conduct interviews with relatives you can download our Insider Guide which contains everything you need to know about the basics of tracing your family history.

Transcribe and Digitize Diaries, Journals and Personal Letters

If you’ve been fortunate enough to inherit an ancestor’s journal, diary, or even personal letters, you’ll want to make sure they are carefully preserved. One way is to transcribe them yourself onto acid-free paper, or make copies of them on the same. Because we are living in a very technology oriented society, we can safely assume that any relatives who come after us will do much of their research and family history charting on computers. Saving or making digital copies of them in several formats will ensure that they are around for years to come, and remain accessible to relatives who may wish to pursue your family history further.

Leave Your Own Story Behind

A great way to help future relatives to continue your family legacy is to leave your own story behind. You could write your own life story; where you were born, who your parents and siblings were, where you worked, went to school; anything you can think of about yourself that may help others to pursue your family history. You don’t need to be an eloquent or practiced writer to do so. Writing in your own words and style will help your descendants get a better idea of who you are as a person, and getting to know our ancestors on a personal level is one of the true joys of genealogy, so pass it on!

If you find writing your life story a bit daunting, try writing a daily journal, but include as many genealogical facts as you can in each entry. If you’re writing about something as simple as having coffee with your cousin, include who their parents were, where they lives and went to school or work. All of that kind of information can help future generations get to know those who came before them better, and preserve your family legacy at the same time!

Hopefully you will find these ideas fulfilling and fun. They are creative, fun ways to help preserve a family history. Not only will they provide future generations with important genealogical data, but entertain them as well!

Constructing a family tree is the basic goal of analysing genealogical data – using vital records, census reports, and other documentation to compile individuals into a family. A one name study will include other analysis such as geographical patterns of names, spelling variations, and uncovering the connections between migration patterns and spelling variations, which can be very involving, but extremely interesting. Analysing the different forms of data you encounter will enable you to distinguish between genuine spelling variations, and those which are simply misspellings or “deviants”.

Distribution analysis is also very important in a one name study. Calculating the rate that a particular name occurs in various places over the course of time is its foundation, and can be crucial in determining the origin of a surname. It is also critical to identify the full names of any spouses you encounter during your research, as often only a first name might be given in a census report. You may have to dig deep to find that missing information, but that is what makes genealogy a challenge, and such a rewarding endeavour when that data is found.

Accurate and thorough analysis of the data you discover will help you to conclude:

• The meaning of your surname
• Its origin
• Identify variants and where they originated
• Migration patterns of your surname

These are just the basic things you can learn about your surname through a one name study. Depending on how far you want to take it, or how deep you want to go in your research, you can also find out things such as:

• Social Conditions your family members may have experienced
• Their average longevity
• Number of births and pregnancies
• Extended families
• Distances between place born and place married

This type of research will lead you to be a bit of a social scientist in addition to being a genealogist. The most adept one name study experts never completely “finish” researching their surname. There is such depth to a one name study and so much information relevant to surnames that can be discovered, it can really turn into a life long journey, especially if you consider the DNA aspect.

DNA and Its Place in a One Name Study

DNA analysis is being used more and more to connect family groups and to establish connections between spelling variations of surnames. There are several ongoing projects dedicated to such analysis, a full alphabetical listing can be found at Cindi’s List. The benefit of a DNA project is that it can establish family connections when the paper trail goes cold, or dies completely. Direct male descendants from other family trees for your surname can be tested, and if their patterns match, you have established the DNA pattern for the originator of that family line. Of course, the more members that are tested and the more matches that are returned, the greater the connection established and the easier it is to reveal a common ancestor.

Distribution Analysis and Finding Your Ancestors Using Maps

The study and analysis of a surname’s geographical distribution over time is a main component of a one name study, and maps naturally are an invaluable tool in doing so. They can be used to:

• Locate Ancestors in conjunction with gazetteers
• Assist in research and data collection
• Present your findings in publications or reports
• Analyze the geographical distribution of surnames
• Study migration patterns

Historical maps must be used in conjunction with modern or contemporary maps, as many boundary changes will have occurred over the years. Gazetteers and Trade Directories may also be especially helpful in locating ancestors, as understanding place names and how they may have changed or originated over the years is crucial to locating your ancestor.

If you are serious about your one name study you might wish to consider using a mapping program. These are programs that allow you to enter your data to create a distribution map specific to your research, or to enter your surname to produce existing distribution maps regarding it. There are downloadable shareware programs available at AgisMap.com or you can purchase a software package from GenMap UK which includes a built in gazetteer to ease the importation of data. Another option from Legacy.com is the Map My Family Tree software. This software analyzes your ancestry files and automatically plots the life events of your ancestors on a customizable color map, allowing you to see at a glance where your relatives were born, got married, and died.

Data collection is both the most tiresome part of a one name study, and the most important. You’ll need to amass as much information as you can find regarding your surname and keep an accurate record of its sources. You will use many of the same resources as you would for a family tree project, albeit you will apply it in different ways. The same principles apply; you are encouraged to verify any information before publishing it in your study, although because of the vastness of such a project that is not always possible. You may have to rely on secondary sources published by other researchers, but try as best you can to verify any original data that you can.

The best part of a one name study is that it can take you to places you wouldn’t otherwise go, by nature it is divergent, and one piece of information may open up a completely new area of research for you. As the study is global, the potential for the scope of your project is huge. In order to capture the extent of your study, you will want to explore as much indexed information as you can. Traditional sources such as BDM indexes and Census reports will play a role in your study, as will maps, but you may also find yourself consulting calendars, resumes, and obscure directories not otherwise employed in a genealogical search.

One benefit of a one name study is that there are no real dead-ends. In a traditional ancestor hunt, the trail goes cold when you can’t connect to the next generation, but a one name study follows the continued presence of a name regardless if references can’t be assembled into family groups.

Various Data Sources for a One Name Study

A one name study involves collecting a vast amount of data from a worldwide perspective, and thus various sources will need to be consulted. The major sources for collecting one name study data are:

• Historical Sources – Maps, Biographies, Family Histories
• Civil Registration Indexes (Births, Deaths and Marriages)
• County Records
• Census Records
• Monumental and Tombstone Inscriptions

These records represent the core data you’ll initially consult in a one name study, and citing such sources within your study will give it credibility in the genealogical world. Almost every kind of genealogical source is relevant to a one name study however, and the following types of record will also prove useful:

• Educational Data – school and university records and degree lists
• Occupational Data – apprentice records, trade and professional directories, manorial records, pension lists, military records, trade union records
• Place Data – Electoral rolls, street directories, property records, tithe records, telephone directories
• Tax Records – Land tax, death duty records
• Heraldic Records – Coats of Arms etc.
• Photographs
• Criminal and Court Records
• Pedigrees

Some of these records you may be already familiar with, and initially you might want to concentrate your efforts on them. Births, Deaths and Marriages records are of particular interest to a one name study, as are baptismal records and census reports. A one stop shop from which you can begin your data collection is the International Genealogical Index.

The International Genealogical Index

The International Genealogical Index (IGF) is one of the world’s foremost collections of genealogical records in existence. Names contained in the collection date from as far back as 1500, and are sourced from original records from around the world. The data is contributed by individuals and volunteers who both submit their own material and extract data from international vital records. The collection was originally started by the LDS (Latter Day Saints or Mormons), and has grown to contain billions of individual records.

The most reliable records found in the IGF are those extracted by the LDS, and they are marked as such. Those supplied by individuals should be treated with caution and their data checked against original sources where possible. Both types of source are given a batch number which can be used to identify they type of record and the name of the location it covers. The batch numbers point to an LDS microfilm number which will contain all of the records of that surname extracted for that particular collection of records.

You can access the International Genealogical Index at FamilySearch.org. You can use the IGI to search marriage and baptism registers etc for entries of your surname, and you can narrow down your search to country, county, parish, and town or village.

Recording Your Data

Naturally, after working so hard to recover all of the information you will find regarding your surname, you will want to ensure that you have an efficient, easy to access system of recording and storing that data. It is also important o record very specific criteria, such as:

• The source of the data
• Location of the source
• The date that you found the information
• What records you searched

If you are researching at a library or Family History Center, take your laptop or hand held wit you, many establishments allow the use of them, and it is an efficient, convenient way to keep and take your records wit you. At some places you may be able to photograph documents that you find, so make sure you have either a camera or mobile phone with picture taking capabilities, though if using a mobile phone please ensure that you have your ring tone set to silent mode.

There is no set way to commence a one name study, as there different variations one can employ. There are set methods that have proved effective over the years however, and the following is based on the best practices employed by a variety of ONS researchers.

The first thing you might want to do is determine how rare or common your surname is, and how it has been distributed throughout the country you live in. Later you can expand your search to worldwide distribution, but as with a family history it is best to begin in your immediate area. The first resource you’ll want to consult is readily available; your local telephone directory. This will give you a general idea of how common your name is in your town, county and eventually your country. The best resource however is national census reports which provide a comprehensive guide to both the historical distribution of your name, and its frequency.

Let’s take a look at how we can determine the frequency of our surname using census data. If you’re surname is of English or Welsh origin, or if you live in those countries for instance, you can visit the ONS List of Surnames of England and Wales. Here you’ll find an extract from the Office of National Statistics database which contains a listing of surnames in use in England, Wales and the Isle of Man as of September 2002. There are over a million surnames shared by more than 55 million people, though less common surnames (shared by fewer than five people) have been excluded from the list.

This database was established in 1998 and is continually updated as births occur, though deaths have not been removed from the database. A survey of one name researchers has suggested that to compensate for the non-removal of deaths, you can multiply the result of your search by .93 to give a fairly accurate idea of those living who share your surname. For example, I did a search for the name MORRIS and a result of 120,691 names was returned. I then multiply 120,691 by .93, getting a revised, and more realistic total of 112,242. Further research has shown that if you multiply the original total by 3.3, you will get an idea of the population possessing your surname since the initiation of parish registers in the 16^th century.

For the United States, the website of the Federal Census Bureau website has a section on name frequency and a report based on a sample of the census from 1990. Analysing the distribution of your name will be greatly enhanced by locating contemporary maps and charting the distribution of your surname on them. This will give you an excellent overview of your surname’s distribution, and arm you with a very valuable genealogical resource to share with other researchers.

You may have already collected some information on your surname as part of your family tree research, and this will be useful. But a one name study requires a more comprehensive and systematic approach. You will need to access sources that are similar to the ones required to construct a family tree, but in this case you will be doing an intensive search from start to finish. This will require total commitment, but your workload may be lightened by working with others who are conducting a similar search.

Data collection during a one name study is, although time consuming, fairly straightforward, but you will be adventuring into new genealogical territory and learning new research methods. Though data collection is important, analyzing that data, forming hypothesis, working with other researchers, publishing your findings, and finally preserving your project in a professional manner complete the criteria of a one name study. Don’t worry, in a subsequent Blog I’ll discuss where to find and how to your record the data you’ll need to collect!

When I first began genealogical research I came across what was referred to as a “One Name Study.” (ONS) As a beginner I had no idea what it was or the potential value it could have to my own research. After looking into the subject I realized that it was both an interesting undertaking and a very valuable genealogy tool and resource. Though not for everyone, there are aspects of a one name study that can be of value to those tracing their family tree. Generally speaking, it is a full time endeavour, perhaps in some ways a bit more involved than compiling a family pedigree. It is well worth discussing however, and so I thought I would provide a brief summary of what a one name study is, what is involved in its pursuit, and how it can help family historians.

A one name study is actually a very unique genealogy project in that it is dedicated to researching all occurrences of a specific surname rather than a person’s lineage or pedigree. There may be variations to a ONS (one name study); some concentrate on the occurrences of a surname in a specific geographical area, while others focus on a complete worldwide analysis – a true one name study.

The ONS may concentrate on certain aspects such as the geographical distribution of the name and how the name has changed over the years (spelling variations), or it might attempt to reconstruct the genealogical lineage of the name – basically a pedigree chart showing the connections between all families bearing that name; denoting families rather than individuals. A common goal is to pinpoint a precise geographical origin of a name, especially if the surname looks to have been named after a place; such as Washington. Many names take their origin from an occupation or trade like Carpenter.

A one name study seeks to collect more than just data, but rather to determine the genealogy and family history of all people with that surname and its variants i.e. Smith, Smyth, and Smythe etc. To accomplish this, the following must be determined:

• The Origin of the Name
• The Meaning of the Name
• Frequency of Occurrence
• Geographical Distribution of the Name
• Immigration and Emigration Patterns
• Variants of the Name
• Distribution of the Name throughout History

Assembling all of the people of that surname into a massive pedigree chart is not required of a ONS however, though some researchers do this with names that are relatively rare. This would be a huge undertaking, but many “one-namers do construct pedigree charts for their own branch of that name. The particular benefit of a one name study is that it can eliminate alternative spellings and such when tracing your own family history, and consulting one can be of great benefit to genealogical researchers.

There is also a good chance of discovering new relatives when undertaking a one name study, but it should always be kept in mind that any information you uncover should be treated with due care and diligence; respecting people’s privacy for both legal and ethical reasons. Let’s take a look at the main component of one name studies – surnames.

Surname Analysis and a One Name Study

The more rare a surname is the easier it is to research, but don’t be put off if you have a fairly common surname, as much research may have already been accomplished regarding it. The beauty of a surname is that each has its own story to tell, and as such, a one name study can be both a rewarding and entertaining endeavour. There are basically eight main classifications of surnames, they are:

• Locative – Derived from the name of a place (Toponymic), or derived from a specific geographical feature of a location such as Hill (Topographic).
• Occupational – Derived from the occupation of the bearer (Butcher, Carpenter, Blacksmith).
• Position Holder – Taken from a political or community position that the bearer had (Judge, Mayor).
• Patronymic – Derived from the forename of the Father (Dennis, Patrick, Williams)
• Matronymic (rare) – Derived from Mother’s first name (Margetson, Beaton)
• Diminutive – Derived from an altered forename. This was common in the Middle Ages when suffixes such as – lett, cock and kin were added to a first name (Bartlett, Tomkins, Hancock).
• Genetive – A name implying ownership by someone, usually the owners name with an “s” added (Martins, Manners, James)
• Nicknames – Sometimes derived from physical appearance or other characteristic (Fox, Cruickshank, Cripple)

Some surnames may have multiple origins, and therefore may have multiple meanings. Performing a one name study can take you on a wonderful ride through history and introduce you to aspects of your family you might not otherwise know. In subsequent blogs I’ll introduce you to additional aspects and benefits of a ONS, and how to go about beginning one should you be interested.