RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: bugbear on Friday 02 February 18 14:18 GMT (UK)
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I am under the impression that single name studies originated in the era of paging through documents, either originals or on fiche, and the patient use of the mk1 human eyeball.
When doing this, it is relatively easy to extract/transcribe every record that matches "the name".
This dataset would also (probably) allow you establish a patrilineal line of descent.
In the modern era of indexed and searchable data it is much more feasible than it used to be to form a full tree, tracing both parents at every level.
So - are single name studies obselete now, or do they have a merit or benefit that I haven't appreciated?
BugBear
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I feel they still have a place.
For me, it’s about trying to find where abouts in England my Creed line originally came from before arriving in Ireland in the early 1600’s.
Ok, it’s a reasonably “small” name to research, but there were pockets of them in various parts of the country. By collecting as much info as I can, I have been able to narrow my search down. It’s a bit systematic but it’s working, slowly.
Collecting the info means I don’t have to keep referring back to the subscription sites.
The only problem I am having now, is the speed in which new databases are becoming available, it is hard to keep up!
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I feel they still have a place.
For me, it’s about trying to find where abouts in England my Creed line originally came from before arriving in Ireland in the early 1600’s.
Ok, it’s a reasonably “small” name to research, but there were pockets of them in various parts of the country. By collecting as much info as I can, I have been able to narrow my search down. It’s a bit systematic but it’s working, slowly.
Collecting the info means I don’t have to keep referring back to the subscription sites.
The only problem I am having now, is the speed in which new databases are becoming available, it is hard to keep up!
OK, so you are indeed researching a "line"; do I also take it that your working assumption is that if you get ALL the records for the name, your line MUST be in the data somewhere, and the remaining task is to pick it out"?
If I'm right, the single name record gathering is stage 1 of a 2 stage process.
1) Gather all the records for the name
2) Find the relevant records for the line, which are assumed to be a subset of (1)
BugBear
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I did a small one name study for a specific area in order to prove which was my Ann Smith born 1800 in Clayton le Moors, Lancashire. All my trees are on Ancestry so all the Smiths I am not related to might be useful to someone else, cb
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I did a small one name study for a specific area in order to prove which was my Ann Smith born 1800 in Clayton le Moors, Lancashire. All my trees are on Ancestry so all the Smiths I am not related to might be useful to someone else, cb
I did something similar - I tried (and failed) to find a "Joseph Hagger" in my tree. I researched quite extensive fully cited trees for no less than 5 Joseph Haggers with "close" dates and places of birth.
None of them were mine!
BugBear
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I think i.m going to discover that my particular branch of Macdermid from Cambuslang in 1900 s will disappear with the next generation
Although my g grandfather had 6 sons only 2 had sons
My father only had daughters ( we've kept our maiden names )
I've traced the cousins lines in new Zealand Australia & America it looks like if there were any male 2nd cousins they either died childless or had girls
haven't found any evidence of children for the eldest cousin in cumbuslang either
on the other hand I'm a big fan of giving importance to the female line too and looking at places of origins for couples .
The fact that people have done 1 name studies does help a lot
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Depends on the commonness of the name, unless it is a ONS for a few villages or a town, or neighbourhood of a city. Ie all Smith's in Shoreditch 1800-1850.
If it is a rare name then ONS studies are worth their weight in gold.
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If it is a rare name then ONS studies are worth their weight in gold.
Could you expand on why, please?
Clearly any-and-all careful research, transforming raw records into checked and transcribed relationships have value; what's the particular merit of a ONS as opposed to a small tree?
BugBear
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I, too, have conducted my own ONS for the surname of Archbell within England. It has been a fascinating exercise, if only to allocate children to the various Thomas/Mary combinations. It also helped to sort out two marriages for Hannah Archbell, when I only had one baptism!!
I have yet to establish any connection between the seafaring Archbell families of Scarborough/Wapping 1700's to the farming Archbell families of Healaugh/Tadcaster 1700's. And I can extend to South Africa, Canada and Australia BUT I haven't so far found any connections with USA.
Each to their own - whatever floats your boat :-*
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Could you expand on why, please?
Clearly any-and-all careful research, transforming raw records into checked and transcribed relationships have value; what's the particular merit of a ONS as opposed to a small tree?
I am researching Scortred C16th & early C17th (& 10= variations), started in Wisbech and has spread to the Isle of Ely, ie 4 counties, but bulk of people with this name lived within 5 miles of Wisbech.
Absolutely no idea of their origin, but I now have 2 distinct trees that I know should be 1 as there are 2 Thomas' both born c1540 whose fathers were brothers.
I have looked at as many BMD's as I can find, wills from Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire & Norfolk and now 2 from Sussex and another 2 from Derbyshire.
The name is so unusual that there has to be a join somewhere. I feel that the only way is to look at & document every occurrence to see if a link appears.
Not a true one name study but more than a well researched family line.
Edward
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If it is a rare name then ONS studies are worth their weight in gold.
Could you expand on why, please?
Clearly any-and-all careful research, transforming raw records into checked and transcribed relationships have value; what's the particular merit of a ONS as opposed to a small tree?
BugBear
I think it is due to the rarity of the surname, and no doubt some people will come across the name, or variants such as Teager/Titshall etc.
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I started collecting everything for Ireland for the one name study. I am lucky that there is quite a lot for my specific line but I have collected everything for the name for other lines as we also have a YDNA project underway, so it is helpful to others too.
I expanded to passenger lists, and now concentrating on the name in and around London.
Years ago, I did the same for my maiden name in one particular town in Somerset. It may seem excessive but well worth it as you can really sort out who is who, unfortunately that name is not very unique and a ONS would be a huge task. I found it a very good learning exercise.
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I am under the impression that single name studies originated in the era of paging through documents, either originals or on fiche, and the patient use of the mk1 human eyeball.
When doing this, it is relatively easy to extract/transcribe every record that matches "the name".
This dataset would also (probably) allow you establish a patrilineal line of descent.
In the modern era of indexed and searchable data it is much more feasible than it used to be to form a full tree, tracing both parents at every level.
So - are single name studies obselete now, or do they have a merit or benefit that I haven't appreciated?
BugBear
No one name studies are possibly even more important now that records are online.
The ease of accessing records also mean it is even easier than it used to be to miss a candidate or include a candidate who should be excluded.
One name studies help to prevent this.
In addition good one name studies transcribe records the may be online but not indexed or transcribed (i.e. browse only), records that may never become available online and records such as many newspapers where the OCRd text is nothing like the printed name among many other advantages of a good one name study.
Cheers
Guy
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No one name studies are possibly even more important now that records are online.
The ease of accessing records also mean it is even easier than it used to be to miss a candidate or include a candidate who should be excluded.
One name studies help to prevent this.
In addition good one name studies transcribe records the may be online but not indexed or transcribed (i.e. browse only), records that may never become available online and records such as many newspapers where the OCRd text is nothing like the printed name among many other advantages of a good one name study.
Cheers
Guy
Interesting; IMHO the key feature of what you've just described is high quality transcription and indexing; the fact that it's on a single name to keep the task "finite" is not really very important!
I don't think anybody is going to object to high quality transcription and indexing, no matter what the motivation!
BugBear
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Interesting; IMHO the key feature of what you've just described is high quality transcription and indexing; the fact that it's on a single name to keep the task "finite" is not really very important!
I don't think anybody is going to object to high quality transcription and indexing, no matter what the motivation!
BugBear
I agree but that is the problem, the on line companies are under pressure to produce more and more records for their subscribers to prevent them leaving their site.
There are a few ways to do this by uploading original unindexed/untranscribed records or by licencing records already transcribed or by getting people to transcribe the records for them all these options come at a cost whether financial or accessibility.
The companies are balancing these costs by using all the options available to them while at the same time keeping subscriptions as low as possible.
I am sure everyone (subscribers & companies) would agree with your target of high quality transcription and indexing would be best, but that comes at a high cost which would hit both subscribers & companies, so a compromise has been reached.
Cheers
Guy