Is there any way on this forum to search for a surname rather than its identical place name? For example, if searching for surname Brenchley, most of the results are actually about Brenchley village in Kent. Is there a way of searching to avoid this? Thanks
Hello
Welcome to Rootschat.
When we write a name of a place or person, there is no facility to specify whether it is a person or place name, in most places on the internet.
Say your Brenchley person was last known to be of Maidstone, you could type in, with commas "Brenchley of Maidstone" (also try changing 'of' for 'in' and 'at' when searching newspapers and elsewhere) as often writers refer to ancestors like that (but not always).
Also there may be Townships within a Town or Parish, also.
You might also try "Brenchley, Brewer" (surname followed by occupation, in commas).
Use inverted commas for bits that you think might appear together.
Some established landed families might be known by their County ... "John Brenchley County of York Gent" or "John Brenchley Co. of York"
Bear in mind these families may not be yours, but it is handy in research also to know other families live there with a same surname, as it may indicate that you may need to be extra careful to rule out some characters
Here is one I tried with commas on Google for "John Brenchley" ...
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp88617/john-brenchleyMark