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One name studies.... advice needed

Discussion in 'Search tips - discussion' started by Britjan, Jan 6, 2014.

  1. Britjan

    Britjan LostCousins Star

    I am hoping forum members will give me their favourite tips AKA "dos" and "donts" for one name studies. I have only approached the idea in a haphazard and piecemeal fashion on a very small scale and need to go about it in a more orderly way.
     
    Britjan, Jan 6, 2014
    #1
  2. AdrienneQ

    AdrienneQ Moderator Staff Member

    I have been thinking of doing a ( I think) slightly unusual one name study based on my first name "Adrienne".
    It's of French derivation and there are only about 5 on the 1841 Census and still only a couple of hundred by 1911.
    My Grandmother came across the name in the early 1900's in Chester and wanted it for herself as she was just Ada with no middle name.

    Does anyone know if this sort of study has been done before?
     
    AdrienneQ, Jan 6, 2014
    #2
  3. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    Alexander Bisset, Jan 7, 2014
    #3
  4. john46

    john46 LostCousins Member

    AdrienneQ,
    the Goons (guild of one name studies) deals in surnames as that is the way to find where and when these occur,and to build up a database, and then find other people searching on that surname.
    So it would be possible to trace just on a first name, the only way would for you to see if there is a pattern occurring on where and when that name occurs and to put that into a list,but I think that would be just an exercise for yourself and would not have a massive audience
    John
     
    john46, Jan 7, 2014
    #4
  5. AdrienneQ

    AdrienneQ Moderator Staff Member

    I agree its just my need for data patterns that would be satisfied. I did some the other night and think that I will complete the exercise and them pass it through FT analyzer to study the results.
    Alexander your software is so useful - thanks again for all you have done in creating it.
     
    AdrienneQ, Jan 7, 2014
    #5
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
  6. AndyMick

    AndyMick LostCousins Star

    Random thoughts on the matter:

    Do it!

    Membership of the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS) is not essential, but their email list (which they call a forum for some historical reason) has considerable expertise. Some regions (eg. Derbyshire) have excellent regional meetings too. Be aware that to register a name costs an additional fee.

    Get a handle on the size of the venture - Stephen Archer's most excellent Surname Atlas will give the size and distribution of a name (yes Adrienne, forename as well!) from the 1881 census. The NationalTrust/SpatialLiteracy site will do the same I think. I have over 450 Micklethwaites in 1881 and that's plenty big enough. Bigger than that and it's going to take a lot of time and energy.

    I started mine in the hope that I might find out more about my 3xgg'father - I didn't! This is not uncommon with an ONS. Be clear what your objectives are. (BTW I hate objectives, so just being interested is good enough for me!)

    Be systematic from the start - doing it my way, bit by bit, leads to all sorts of problems when your database can't cope with something new, etc. It's easy enough to get tools to scrape data off websites, but much more difficult to revisit the site when it's been updated as you have then to compare the new scrape with the old - maybe you need to find a way to keep the scrapes for later comparison.

    As with all FH, record where you found stuff, and why you chose to do something/somebody.

    Recognise that if you do start it, it will get big, and go global. It's addictive. I wasn't interested in certain stuff originally - eventually I had to go there, so accept you're going to do it from the start!

    Get help - it's a big job unless your study is small. The GOONS aren't set up for collaborative ventures - you have to have a named person.

    I've had my best feedback from a web site dedicated to the ONS - get one - there are plenty of people here who can advise (me included)

    Think carefully about how you are going to record your ONS. FH programmes aren't necessarily best set up to handle several separate trees. I use an Excel spreadsheet (well, about 17 different ones actually, but all linked). The GOONS email list can be viewed by non-members - search on there for discussion on what different folks recommend.

    That'll do for starters. Jennie probably has some ideas too.
    Any questions, please ask.
    HTH Andy.
     
    AndyMick, Jan 28, 2014
    #6
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 2
    • Agree Agree x 1
  7. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    I'm doing a one name study for Bissets but have limited mine to NE Scotland where there are 3500ish births recorded in the indexes on Scotland's people. I would specifically advise avoiding the Guild of One Name Studies until you have progressed well down the line with your study. One of their requirements for membership is that you MUST do a global study something I'm simply not interested in doing. The fact you have to also pay them cash and seemingly get precious little in return other than a listing that you are undertaking that study, also puts me off.

    What you will want to do is to have a computer program to store your records. Paper records simply won't be satisfactory. This is because the nature of a one name study is that you religiously record every last scrap of info you find and far more importantly where your found the info. So no matter how small a scrap of info you have put it in your tree. I use Family Tree Maker 2014 and it can add unrelated individuals quite easily. This ability is a requirement make sure your family history program can do that. I suspect most can.

    As you enter scraps of info you can start to see through looking at the data where there are common links and small twiglets become twigs then small branches then sturdy limbs of a tree.

    By entering every last fragment you MUST accept that you are obviously entering duplicates. That's really the whole point. Then eventually you will find duplicates and you can merge them into one person thus perhaps merging someone who appears only on a marriage with an entry where they appear on a census as a child. By merging you tie the generations together and grow your tree.

    Eventually you the bigger branches and will find yourself naming them eg: oh he's one of the Rathen Bissets. It's fun, rewarding and a diversion from doing your main tree.
     
    Alexander Bisset, Feb 2, 2014
    #7
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  8. Britjan

    Britjan LostCousins Star

    Thank you all so much for the great advice and food for thought. You've convinced me that I've too much going on all fronts to tackle something new for the time being but I will set up a place to "park" extraneous bits and pieces that might pertain to my study. One other topic that I might as well air in this branch of the forum is the issue of surname variation as I'm tackling it on my direct tree. My #7 was born in 1877 in London but I still cannot identify her family on the 1881 census which is a huge hole as far making full use of LC is concerned. I've just been reviewing the most up to date relevant information at both FMP and Ancestry as the surname is subject to variation and wonder if I've covered all the bases. The link to a discussion on the Family search site seems both comprehensive and overwhelming but any advice on the subject would once again be appreciated.
     
    Britjan, Feb 2, 2014
    #8
  9. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    Actually Britjan you are probably better, knowing that you might one day start, actually start now. Otherwise you end up with lots of little snippets of disorganised information lying around that becomes larger over time and thus a bigger disincentive to actually start tackling it. Start small, tidy up the paper records you have and start entering them into a new tree. Do a bit at a time then simply add to it as you stumble across more info rather than necessarily focusing on the one name study.
     
    Alexander Bisset, Feb 2, 2014
    #9
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
    • Good tip Good tip x 1
  10. AndyMick

    AndyMick LostCousins Star

    Britjan - why don't you post details of your #7 somewhere (mods, please tell us where as this thread is probably not the right place) so others can look too. Fresh eyes and minds might help.
     
    AndyMick, Feb 6, 2014
    #10

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