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Theory of Surname
* It is recognised academic theory that even with migration, enough people of a particular surname tend to stay in and around the same place, so that counties showing the highest occurrence of a name are more likely to prove fruitful in searching for ancestors of that name.
* Even quite common names show a geographical bias when plotted onto the UK distribution map and when this is pursued onto the county maps definite hotspots usually occur.
* RootsMap has developed a methodology so that provided there are sufficient entries, heads of household are extracted from the data, in order to provide the closest match to the male line.
* In the case of the more unusual names a particular village or vicinity can be demonstrated to be the likely birthplace of a common ancestor and well worth a visit when undertaking family history research.
* We then endeavour to use the earliest born of this group of head of households, so that we are using the earliest data possible available from the 1881 Census.
* Based on data from the 1881 census, and by taking the total number of entries of a specific surname and editing this to 'head of households', a list is produced of those born between approximately 1800 and 1861, of which over 95% are male.
* From this sample we are able to build a database of individuals born sometimes from as far back as the 1780s.
* By using the place of birth for these individuals, a UK infill map showing the relative occurrence of a surname county by county, is produced.
* In this way, we are endeavouring to show the place of birth of people born before the major advent of the Industrial Revolution, after which greater migration took place to the big cities of the industrial north.
* The use of 'heads of household' removes any bias resulting from the rapid growth of population in industrial areas in the latter part of the 19th century, concentrating instead on births in the earlier part of the century, pre-industrialisation.
* There is strong evidence that despite population movement in the 19th Century most people stayed relatively near to their place of birth.
* However, if there are insufficient numbers of 'head of housholds', quite common in unusual surnames, all individuals are used, although again, if sufficient numbers are available (>1000), the latest born will be filtered out, leaving the earliest born sample of c. 1000 individuals.
