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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,377 members
    • 2,236 studies
    • 7,920 surnames

Guild Community

Genealogy can be a solitary pursuit but most people relish meeting and chatting to others with a similar passion for people of the past. An important feature of the Guild of One-Name Studies is collaboration and sharing information with others. Membership provides opportunities to contact and have discussions with like-minded people from all over the world. If you’re not currently a member, why not join us?

Available to Everyone

The Guild has a strong and lively community spirit. Our members are friendly, helpful and co-operative. They welcome newcomers and can often provide you with ideas and assistance in your research. You can make contact in several ways.

Contact a Member with a Shared Interest

Using the surname search box at the top of the page, you can find out if any members have registered, or have an interest in, the names you are researching. Simply click on their name to send them an email through the Guild.

Contact a Member through our Indexes

If you find records in our indexes, such as the Global Marriages Index, that are of interest to you, you can contact the member who contributed the information to find out more.

Contact the Guild Help Desk

You’ll find various ways to get in touch with us, including telephone numbers for the UK, US & Canada, and Australia, on the Contact Us page. We’ll try to find someone appropriate to answer your query.

Come and Talk to Us at a Show

One of the best ways to find out about the Guild and our members is to visit a Guild stand at one of the Family History Shows we attend. You can chat to the people at the stand and they will show you what is available through the Guild that might be relevant to the name or names you are researching. The Guild was formed in the United Kingdom 40 years ago, and that is still where we have the greatest concentration of members but we’re working hard to increase our membership elsewhere in the world. We now have over 1,000 members in other countries but, if you live outside the UK, it will be harder for you to find an event near you. We do have a presence at some events in the US and Australia, for example, but we can’t yet attend as many events in other countries as we’d like. You can find details of upcoming events here.

Attend a Seminar

Non-members are always welcome at any of our seminars or our annual Conference. As with the shows, most of these take place in the UK and so may not be a possibility for those living elsewhere but, if you have a chance to attend, as well as excellent speakers, you’ll find a welcoming community and an opportunity to ask questions and find out more about the Guild. You can see details of our next seminar here. (Hopefully technology will eventually allow those in other countries to join in.)

Find Us on Facebook

You don’t have to be a Guild member to look at our Public Facebook page. This is where we share information about upcoming events, special offers, and notifications of anything we think may be of interest to family historians. You can find the page here.

You can’t post on the public Facebook page, but Guild members can access our Members Facebook Group – see below – which is where you’ll find  a lively community. You can post to ask questions about all manner of things.  It’s an amazing source of information and advice – so why not become a member and join in the discussion?

Available to Guild Members Only

The first three services are methods of communicating with other members to share information or discuss ideas. You can use these wherever you live in the world. Each has its devotees – try all of them to find out which ones best suit you. Members must be logged in to access the links below.

Guild Facebook Group

If you’re a Facebook user, you’ve probably already discovered how useful groups can be. The Guild Facebook group is the best place to get quick answers to questions, from reading problematic handwriting on a census return, interpreting DNA results, to asking for someone to check a record at a Records Office for you. You can post photos as well as text, so it’s ideal for sharing images. There’s a wealth of experience among our members and this is a way you can tap into it.

Our WebForum

As a member, you have access to our Webforum. This is an online forum where you can exchange information, ask questions, and discuss issues with other Guild members. Although not as busy as the Facebook page on a daily basis, the advantage of the forum is that forum threads are archived, so it is easier to search through messages that have been posted in the past, and you may find the answer to your question there.

There is a separate forum dedicated to the Members’ Websites Program, with sub-forums for the different types of site.

Mailing List

All members can choose to subscribe to the Guild mailing list. It is designed to promote discussion of the Guild, one-name studies, and other genealogical matters. All emails to the mailing list are automatically distributed to all subscribers, who can then reply and their reply is distributed to everyone. It has the advantage that the posts are sent into your Inbox – you don’t have to remember to log in to the website forum or Facebook page.

Regional Representatives

The Guild has over 60 Regional Reps in various countries around the world. They can provide advice and guidance, particularly to new members. Some hold local meetings, some publish a newsletter or report. As well as greeting and supporting members in their area, many Regional Reps promote the Guild at events in their regions or represent it at Family History shows and fairs.

Mentor’s Scheme

The Guild has a network of mentors to help new members find their way around the Guild’s facilities and to advise on issues they may face when starting and developing their studies.  Mentors can also direct members to the full range of Guild services on the website.  Some mentors may be experts in specific aspects of surname studies, but all of them are capable of giving good advice to new or relatively inexperienced researchers in an open and friendly way.

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One-Name Studies

  • One-Name Studies
    • Surnames and variants
    • Registering a one-name study
    • Data collection
    • Analysis
    • Synthesis
    • Publicising your study
    • Responding to enquiries
    • Publication of results
    • Preserving your study
    • Data sources
    • Recording data
    • Storing data
    • Roles for One-Name Studies

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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© 2013–2023 Guild of One-Name Studies CIO. Registered Charity in England and Wales, No. 1197944.