Researching my family history has become something of a passion. I have followed many lines in my family tree and found out a lot about my ancestors. I have set up a website - https://sarginsonfamily.com - for this one name study for the surname Sarginson and its variants. As my research continues I will add more information to this profile and my website about the people and places where Sarginson families lived. 

I am currently researching other family groups.

The surname variants I am including in my study are: Sarginson, Sargison, Sargeson, Serginson and Sergison. Sargent, Sergeant and Sergent are also possible variants.

A number of sources[1][2][3] suggest that Sarginson and its variants are derived from a Middle English word – sergent – meaning servant. In addition, the Forebears[4] website indicates that it comes from a nickname, son of the Sergent, for example, like Smithson does. It also seems that this class of names are particularly prevalent in Yorkshire.

However, surnames and their origins have so far not been well researched in the UK. The Oxford University Press though is planning to publish a book on the origins of surnames later this year. It will be based on a project called the ‘Family Names of the United Kingdom’ which is run by the Bristol Centre for Linguistics in the University of the West of England. I look forward to its publication and will return to this topic once it is available.

[1] Internet surname database. http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Sarginson#ixzz4GAEG1jc0 : accessed 02 August 2016.

[2] Behind the Name. http://surnames.behindthename.com/name/sergeant : accessed 03 August 2016.

[3] Forebears. https://forebears.io/surnames/sarginson : accessed 03 August 2016.

[4] Ibid.

The 1881 census provides useful insights into where Sarginson's (and surname variants) were living at that time. The following table provides an overview:

Source: British 19thCentury Surname Atlas ver1.20 (www.archersoftware.co.uk)

For each variant of the surname in this one name study, the table shows in which counties the name was found in the 1881 census, together with the actual number of people and the Banwell ratio in brackets. In some counties the instances of particular surnames were very low so the figures have not been included in the main table and just the names of the counties in the final row.

There are also two other surname variants which have not been included as they have very low numbers of occurrences in the 1881 census: Sergeson ( 1 person in Lancashire and 1 person in Lincolnshire) and  Sergenson ( 9 people in Lancashire and 3 people in Westmoreland).

The Banwell ratio can vary from 0, meaning there are no instances of the surname in the county, upwards. It indicates how far a surname is above or below the number you would expect from an even distribution of surnames in a county. For example, if the ratio is shown as 2 this means that there are twice as many instances of this surname in a particular county compared with the figure you would expect if surnames were evenly distributed across it. In the above table I have highlighted instances where a surname variant was found in a particular county 5 times or more than would have been expected. In 1881 Sarginson’s and the above surname variants resided in the following counties:

 Many of the above counties adjoin each other. 

The website for the DNA project is https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Sarginson

The website address for this one name study is https://sarginsonfamily.com.