Most common surnames in the Forest (General)
During the 19th century I'm pretty sure JONES would head the list but
which surnames would come after that one?
Most common surnames in the Forest
by slowhands, proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, (6669 days ago) @ admin
in no particular order :-
JONES
DAVIS / DAVIES
THOMAS
MORGAN
WILLIAMS
SMITH
then
WATKINS
GRIFFITHS
EDWARDS
LEWIS
JAMES
JENKINS
MEEK
HALE / HAILE
BEACH
NELMS / NELMES
BEARD
YEMM
BALDWIN
BAILEY
PHILLIPS
KEAR
EVANS
HAWKINS
HILL
BRAIN
GRINDLE
TAYLOR
PHELPS
MATTHEWS
ADAMS
COLE / COAL
COOPER
POWELL
ROBERTS
VAUGHAN
MARFELL
KNIGHT
WILCE
TRIGG
STERRY
TURLEY
TINGLE
VIRGO
WILDEN / WALDEN
to be continued !
Most common surnames in the Forest
by cmfenton, Ferndown, Dorset, (6659 days ago) @ slowhands
It can be interesting to look up some of the less common names on the site:
http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/
This shows the geographical distribution of surnames taken from the 1881 and 1998 censuses.
A name of particular interest to me is "Meek". This name which is six times more common in Gloucestershire than the national average and the top postal town in the UK is Drybrook, which makes it a good Forest name from my perspective.
Most common surnames in the Forest
by Philippa, (6655 days ago) @ cmfenton
I've just played with the National Trust Names site - great fun!
The Frowen's (maternal grandmothers family) are all in the Forest/Monmouthshire in the 1800's but then the name moves all over the place, but mostly in South Wales which is where my line ended up.
I also tried Foulkes, which is my maternal grandfathers family and they seem to have just moved further into North Wales and are mostly on Anglesey.
I'm off to play more with my Husbands family names now - thanks for the link!
Most common surnames in the Forest
by gerrym, (6572 days ago) @ cmfenton
The photograph of your great-grandparents, James & Rebecca Meek, and family has Thomas at the centre of the back row - he is my maternal grandfather. As far as I can remember the names of some of the other children in the photo are:
Hubert, Alice, Frank, Mabel.
I assume that your mother was Mary, the daughter of Alice.
Best wishes,
gerrym
Top 5 taken from Parish Records Baptisms
Subject to alteration if I have missed a surname.
JONES (5149)
DAVIS / DAVIES (3242)
WILLIAMS (3037)
MORGAN (2917)
SMITH (2358)
Top 5 taken from Parish Records Baptisms
by Essex_Lad, (6664 days ago) @ admin
So they're welsh then?
Top 5 taken from Parish Records Baptisms
by slowhands, proud of his ancient Dean Forest roots, (6662 days ago) @ Essex_Lad
this area is on the English/Welsh border, so it should not be a surprise to find a lot of "cross border" movement :-)
This was especially true for the Coal and Iron workers.