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One Name
Studies
A one-name study
is a project researching all occurrences of a surname, as opposed
to a particular pedigree (ancestors of one person) or descendancy
(descendants of one person or couple). Some "one-namers" may restrict
their research geographically, perhaps to one country, but true
one-namers collect all occurrences world-wide. A one-name study
may concentrate on aspects such as geographical distribution of
the name and the changes in that distribution over the centuries,
or may attempt to reconstruct the genealogy of as many lines as
possible bearing the name. A frequent aim is to identify a single
original location of the name, especially if the name appears to
derive from a place name. The
Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS) outlines
specific criteria that must be met to classify as a one name study.
During the course
of my family research, I have found myself researching names where
it appeared I found everyone else but my relatives. In some cases,
I found my self documenting large trees in the hope of identifying
a relative, either by naming
pattern or location. In some cases I found my 'missing link',
in others I found relatives researching the same trees. I don't
pretend that any of these are comprehensive one-name studies, but
in the case of the Bashfords and the Shoobridges they are VERY comprehensive.
Knowing how
difficult it was when I started my research finding lots of dead
ends and trying to work out how my family fit with others ofthe
same name, so, I thought I would make these databases - some of
which contain members of my family - available in the hope I might
make someone elses life easier.
I have over
10 separate databases of people based on name, but at this time,
there are really only 3 that are in such as state as to be made
public. All of these database are hosted on Gencircles, as is my
own family tree.
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