Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
AIMS OF THE GROUP
The first recorded spelling of the family name is of Adam de Wallebonk in 1332.
The earliest reference in parish registers is shortly after the compulsory keeping of registers in 1538. Several parishes in the Ribble Valley recorded the name before 1560.Shortly afterwards the name and variants appeared in registers in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire
UK Regional Variations
Most Wallbank and Walbank surnames are found in Lancashire and Yorkshire.The towns of greatest concentration of Wallbank are Preston and Clitheroe. For the much less common Walbank , Bradford is the top city. It is estimate from telephone directories that about 50% of the GB total live in these two counties. About 25% live in the Midland counties (predominately Staffordshire and Worcester) ; about 12% are found in Greater London ;and about 3% in South Wales. The few remaining are scattered across the regions. The South Wales line grew from one or two migrants from North Staffordshire in the 19th century .
North Staffordshire has the greatest number of the Wallbanks variant, about 50% of the total reside around Stoke-on-Trent. None, or very few, are to be found in the Wallbank hot-spot of Lancashire/Yorkshire.
Overseas
I have little data for the non-UK Wallbank and variants. In New Zealand according to the Surname Profiler the Wallbank variant has its highest share of the population in Waikato Province, Walbank in the Bay of Plenty, and Wallbanks in Canterbury province. In the USA, Wallbank has its highest share in Massachussets. No data is published for Walbank and Wallbanks in the USA in the Surname Profiler.
Wilbank(s) variants are found in the USA. A webpage dedicated to this name can be found on Rootsweb
The Wallbank surname DNA project was started in December 2006
Go to the project page at FamilytreeDNA for more information
www.familytreedna.com/public/wallbank/
To find out more about the Wallbank One -Name Study go to
www.wallbanks.org