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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,541 members
    • 2,332 studies
    • 8,256 surnames

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Join our mailing list to learn more about the Guild and we’ll let you know about webinars and other events. Click here to subscribe.

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Explore our online indexes, including marriages, probate records, inscriptions, and newspapers, many of which are unique to the Guild. We have a comprehensive Wiki and Library. You may find clues to help you overcome brick walls or find new avenues to investigate. Read more…


Discuss your research with friendly people from all over the world who share your interests. We have an active Members’ Facebook group, Guild forums, and an email list. You can ask questions, get helpful advice, and find offers such as record look-up services. Read more…


Improve your knowledge and skills by learning about a wide variety of topics from sources of information, choosing and using genealogy software, to analysing DNA results. Attend one of our highly-rated seminars or participate in an online course or webinar. Read more…


Promote your study through a Guild profile and share family stories in our Journal. We can help you set up a website on our server, saving you time and money. We can preserve your research for future generations either online or in our archives. Read more…

One-Name Studies

studiesFamily historians generally research their ancestors as far back as possible, collecting names and information on everyone related to them. A one-name study is rather different. It concentrates on those with a single surname, even if they are not related. Researchers often start by following a single line of their own family, but move on to collecting information on people with that surname, past and present, anywhere in the world. Read more …

Members’ Websites

We don’t require our members to undertake their one-name study in any particular way. Some people concentrate on family reconstruction, others on stories or collecting data. You can get a feel for the many different approaches our members have taken in carrying out their studies by looking at some of their websites. Through our Members’ Websites Program, we can help members create a website to publish and preserve their research. Read more…

“The membership cost is cheap compared to other groups, but none of the others I belong to have such an effective and friendly support and service component. We share new discoveries, techniques for using DNA, for presenting data on websites; we answer questions about almost anything in genealogy – even issues with PCs. No-one does this as well as the Guild.” – John Lisle, USA, 2019.

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Find Out More

Guild News

  • Appointment of New President for the Guild of One-Name Studies.
  • How to Find American Ancestors in the 1950 US Census
  • Oxfordshire DNA & Surnames Projects Webinar

Journal of One-Name Studies

See what’s in the latest edition of our quarterly journal.  Read more…

Upcoming Events

  • 06 Jul 2022 – How can the Guild of One-Name Studies help me?
  • 06 Jul 2022 – Webinar - Researching Jewish Genealogy Sources for Your One Name Study
  • 08 Jul 2022 – GOONS Friday Virtual Pub Crawl
  • 15 Jul 2022 – GOONS Friday Virtual Pub Crawl
  • 22 Jul 2022 – GOONS Friday Virtual Pub Crawl

Feature Study: Cobb

Cobb ONS

Lyme Regis’ harbour wall is called ‘The Cobb’ and was built as a breakwater to protect ships and the town.

The name Cobb is historically found most frequently in Dorset, Kent and Nottinghamshire in England. The Cobb and Cobbs website includes detailed family trees, DNA analysis and original source data from the USA. See Cobb Guild Profile for UK research.

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Program
  • Surname Cloud
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: Guild General Contact
Postal address:
c/o Secretary
Edendale, 113 Stomp Road
Burnham, Berkshire, SL1 7NN, U.K
Call us free on:
UK: 0800 011 2182
US & Canada: 1-800-647-4100
Australia: 1800 305 184

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© 2013–2022 Guild of One-Name Studies. Registered Charity in England and Wales, No. 802048.