Searching for an occupational surname, eg Miller, Farmer or Potter

The following article is reprinted from "Facts & Genes"

The ancestral country for your surname is England. Looking at a surname distribution map, based on the 1881 census, shows your surname present in every county except 2, and a concentration in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and London. The fact that the surname found in almost every county, plus the fact that there are over 17,000 persons with the surname in the 1881 census for England and Wales, indicates that this is a multiple origin surname. In addition, since your surname is an occupational surname, and the occupation was spread all over the country, there could be well over 100 origins, and perhaps significantly more. The occupation was not as common as many other occupations, which is a positive factor.

The population size of the surname in the UK as of 2002, according to the Office of National Statistics, is over 31,000.

A look at early occurrences, pre-1450, for rare and obscure sources, show only 24 occurrences, a very good sign, indicating a smaller number of origins than I expected. The large population in 1881 could be due to one or more trees ramifying.

A quick look at variants shows later occurrences, indicating late forming variants.

Based on the above information, the problem you face is that there are many origins for the surname, and you need multiple persons representing different origins to test in the UK to find a match. You may get lucky with the first one, though that would be unusual.

Suggested actions are:

1. Collect the pre-1600 recordings of the surname to identify locations for these early occurrences.
2. Join the genealogy societies for the counties with the highest frequency of the surname. Based on the 1881 UK Census, this would be Yorkshire, Lancashire, and London. Post to members interests about genealogy to attract people that you then can educate about DNA testing.
3. Join the genealogy societies for the counties with the early occurrences. Post interests as above.
If steps 2 and 3 yield no results, consider the second tier of counties.
4. At the same time, post to Rootsweb message boards for any county about genealogy of your surname and DNA testing. Spread out the posts so you don't get objections from the board administrators, and check with administrators first for their policy about posting about DNA. Be sure to include relevant genealogy information in your posting.
5. Consider direct mail to either phone book entries or the Electoral Roll. If you offer to pay for a DNA test, you will get a much higher response rate. Consider raising donations to fund UK tests. The quality of your letter determines your response rate, so invest in developing a quality letter.
6. Build up USA participation in the project. With only 14 persons tested, this is a very small group compared to the frequency of the surname.
7. Be patient. With a high frequency surname, it is more difficult, but not impossible, to find the connection to the UK.
8. I looked at the project, and several surnames are included that I don't think are variants, so I would break apart the project, extracting the surnames that are not variants, so there would be multiple group administrators, who would focus on recruiting for their group of surnames.


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