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The website that lets you find out where your family came from online
The Evening Standard (U.K.) ^ | August 30, 2008

Posted on 08/30/2008 8:33:55 AM PDT by Stoat

The website that lets you find out where your family came from online

Last updated at 02:23am on 30.08.08
 

Ever wondered where in the world you can find the most Crooks, Cranks and Losers?
 

Or, come to that, the places overrun by people called Smith or Jones?
 

Well, wonder no more. A website launched today can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about surnames  -  unusual or otherwise.

 
Klass

Pure Klass: Myleene
 

It uses more than one billion records to show which countries, regions and cities have the greatest concentrations of a given surname.

Simply by typing in a name, anyone can work out where their ancestors are likely to have originated  -  and where their distant relatives have ended up.
 

The site exploits the fact that most people do not move far from the place they are born, despite the ease of modern transport and communications.
 

Regions where surnames are most heavily concentrated tend to be the regions from where they originated.
 

The site's creators believe it will be invaluable for those tracing their family tree and for social historians charting the patterns of migration.
 

It shows that the name 'Crank' originates in the north-west of England, although Cranks are now more concentrated in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
 

And while Carlisle is the top city in the world to find a Crook, you're most likely to come across a Loser in Switzerland.
 

The site is the brainchild of researchers at University College London. It follows the success of a website which showed concentrations of names in the UK.
 

Professor Paul Longley, who launched the site at the Royal Geographical Society's conference in London, said: 'If you looked up a name on the previous website you could see where Anglo-Saxon names originated in the 12th and 13th centuries.
 

'This websites broadens the previous one and looks at the distribution of names in 26 countries.
 

'It means we have names representative of one billion people in the world.'
 

He added: 'A name doesn't just tell you who you are  -  but where you are, where you came from and where your family has gone.'
 

The site reveals some surprising things about the family origins of our top politicians.
 

Although there is a famous cluster of Camerons in London's Notting Hill, the website shows that the family name probably originated in the Highlands.
 

However, the highest concentrations of Camerons is now in New Zealand, followed by Australia and Canada.
 

Professor Longley suspects that the Conservative leader's ancestors left Scotland after the Highland-clearances of the 18th century, when people were forcibly removed from their homes. 

 
Rooney

Name game: Top stars and their ancestry

'We found that a lot of Scottish names are concentrated in Australia  -  particularly South Australia and Tasmania. My hypothesis is that these areas were settled at the time as the Scottish clearances,' he said.
 

Blairs are also most concentrated in New Zealand, whereas Thatchers are most likely to be found in Australia.
 

Some rather less distinguished names can also be found on the website. There are, for instance, no Hitlers left in Germany. However, there is a sizeable population of them in Delhi, India.



TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Hobbies; Miscellaneous; Reference
KEYWORDS: familynames; geneology; history; names; roots; surnames; worldnames; worldnamesprofiler
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World Names Profiler

 

It shows that the name 'Crank' originates in the north-west of England, although Cranks are now more concentrated in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
 

It goes like this

hmmmmm.......

********************************************************************

Note to readers....I keep getting errors that the 'database is busy', and so you may want to bookmark the World Names Profiler page for later perusal.

1 posted on 08/30/2008 8:33:55 AM PDT by Stoat
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To: martin_fierro
The site's creators believe it will be invaluable for those tracing their family tree and for social historians charting the patterns of migration.
2 posted on 08/30/2008 8:38:42 AM PDT by Stoat
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To: Stoat

Bookmark


3 posted on 08/30/2008 8:42:29 AM PDT by defconw (Obama stole "Yes We Can" from Bob the Builder!-McPal Gal II)
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To: Stoat

Yup! Bookmark and bump it!


4 posted on 08/30/2008 8:49:56 AM PDT by mainestategop (MAINE: The way communism should be)
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To: mainestategop

for later


5 posted on 08/30/2008 8:53:15 AM PDT by cmsgop ( " excuse me stewardess I speak jive")
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To: Stoat

Same here. Looks like they’re going to have to add more servers.


6 posted on 08/30/2008 8:57:02 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (The Word of God is powerful. That's why so many are scared to read it.)
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To: Pontiac

for later when the data base is not so busy.


7 posted on 08/30/2008 8:57:47 AM PDT by Pontiac (Your message here.)
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To: self

ping


8 posted on 08/30/2008 8:57:54 AM PDT by Jonx6
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To: Stoat; AdmSmith; AnalogReigns; Cacique; caryatid; Celtjew Libertarian; CobaltBlue; ...
Genetic
Genealogy
Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list
Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?)(M175)
Maternal Haplogroup H
GG LINKS:
African Ancestry
DNAPrint Genomics
FamilyTree DNA
GeneTree
mitosearch
Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project
Oxford Ancestors
RelativeGenetics
Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation
Trace Genetics
ybase
ysearch
The List of Ping Lists

OK, I'm interested.

9 posted on 08/30/2008 8:59:00 AM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Stoat

Interesting post. That reminds me of something I’ve been wondering about. The names “Washington” and “Lincoln”.

These days it seems that most people with the name Washington are black Americans. Are there any white Washingtons left in the country? Just wondering if they may have been related biologically to George Washington in some distant way. I dont think he had children.

Lincoln is another name that you don’t see these days


10 posted on 08/30/2008 8:59:11 AM PDT by tsowellfan (http://www.cafenetamerica.com)
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To: Vor Lady

ping


11 posted on 08/30/2008 9:01:37 AM PDT by LongElegantLegs (Come then, War! With hearts elated to thy standard we will fly!)
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To: self

Ping


12 posted on 08/30/2008 9:02:39 AM PDT by conservative cat
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To: Stoat

Well my last name is mostly located FPM in Canada and the USA, third being Germany although the last name according to that site is of English origin. Also I think they need to work on similar names, because frankly those they listed just aren’t that similar at all except for they all start with H.


13 posted on 08/30/2008 9:09:01 AM PDT by aft_lizard (One animal actually its eats its own brains to conserve energy, we call them liberals.)
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To: Stoat

Great! Thanks for the link!


14 posted on 08/30/2008 9:09:07 AM PDT by Lijahsbubbe
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To: Stoat

ping


15 posted on 08/30/2008 9:12:51 AM PDT by Blind Eye Jones
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To: tsowellfan
These days it seems that most people with the name Washington are black Americans. Are there any white Washingtons left in the country? Just wondering if they may have been related biologically to George Washington in some distant way. I dont think he had children.

I saw one grifter (white) who was capitalizing on his Washington surname when I was working at the Federal District Court in upstate NY. I can't remember all the details of the case though.

16 posted on 08/30/2008 9:24:43 AM PDT by jude24
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To: Stoat

ping


17 posted on 08/30/2008 9:40:22 AM PDT by coon2000
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To: JerseyHighlander

self ping


18 posted on 08/30/2008 11:31:24 AM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: JerseyHighlander

bump - this site is not working for me yet either...


19 posted on 08/30/2008 6:41:31 PM PDT by Yaelle
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To: LongElegantLegs

Tried to search, but database is busy at 5:13 am CDT


20 posted on 09/01/2008 3:15:11 AM PDT by Vor Lady
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