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Close One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Close

Variants: Closs

Category: 2 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way, but currently in some countries only.

Website: close.one-name.net

DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/public/closefamilysurname

Contact: Mrs Margaret Southgate

About the study

Like many one-namers, I began with an interest in my own immediate family which aroused curiosity about the bigger picture. I have built a comprehensive database of CLOSE (and variants including CLOSS) births, marriages, deaths and census records for England & Wales, which has helped me to reconstruct family lines and analyse this information to identify migration patterns. I will endeavour to answer queries connected with these surnames, but please be patient as this study still has a long way to go. I have also made a start on collecting United States census data and reconstructing families but clearly the task is an enormous one (over 31,000 individuals so far!).

Consequently, I'm LOOKING FOR STUDY ASSOCIATES to share in this study. If you have an interest in CLOSE/CLOSS or variants, it would be great if you could take responsibility for perhaps one US state, or even one US county - collecting census and/or birth/marriage/death data in the first instance. I look forward to hearing from you!

Variant names

There are a number of cases where CLOSE has become CLOSS or vice versa, or where the two surnames seem to be used interchangeably for the same individuals. I have yet to find any direct link between CLOSE and other surnames listed in some surname dictionaries as variants. For that reason, and in order to keep my study within manageable proportions, I have now discontinued my research into CLOWES and variants, and am delighted to report that this surname is now the subject of a separate one-name study - put the name in the surname search box for details.

The study now also includes various names of German origin: KLOSS, KLOS, KLOSZ etc., many of which became CLOSE or CLOSS when families moved to English-speaking countries. Study associates with an interest in these names would be very welcome to join the team!

Name origin

The surname CLOSE has two possible origins: it could be topographical, referring to an enclosed place such as a courtyard or farmyard, or a nickname for someone reserved or secretive. I'm inclined to favour the 'enclosed place' origin, since the term 'a close of land' occurs frequently in early English wills and land records .It would appear that most bearers of the name today pronounce it as the adjective in 'a close relationship'. However, it is said that John 'Poet' CLOSE (1816-1891) pronounced his surname as the verb in 'close the window'. Is your name CLOSE? How do you pronounce it?

Historical occurrences of the name

Early references to the name include:

1214 William LE CLOS (Curia Regis Rolls, Cambridge)
1296 Nicholas DE CLOS (Subsidy Rolls, Sussex)
1327-1333 Thomas DE(L) CLOS(E) of Grinton (Subsidy Rolls, Yorkshire)
1355-1362 Sir Thomas DEL CLOSE, Rector of Brougham, Westmorland
1401-1409 John CLOOS, attorney (Calendar of Assize Rolls, Calendar of Plea & Memoranda Rolls, London)
1417 John CLOSE (sen. & jun.), Robert CLOSE, soldiers (http://medievalsoldier.org)
1448-1450 Nicholas CLOOS D.Th. Prebendary of Wedmore Quarta
1450-1452 Nicholas CLOSE (or CLOOS), Bishop of Carlisle
1470 death of Stephen CLOSE (or CLOOS), Archdeacon of Carlisle
1479-1501 John CLOOS, Dean of Chichester
1491-92 Rychard CLOSE, warden, St Mary at Hill, City of London

Name frequency

Frequency of the surnames in England & Wales in the 19th Century and the start of the 20th.

1841: CLOSE 1,530 CLOSS 87

1861: CLOSE 1,553 CLOSS 93

1881: CLOSE 2,439 CLOSS 98

1901: CLOSE 3,060 CLOSS 133

It is estimated that the number of individuals in England in 2002 with these surnames was as follows:

CLOSE 4,516

CLOSS 139

If you are one of these, then I would be delighted to hear from you.

Distribution of the name

Distribution of the surnames in England & Wales in 1861 was as follows:

Counties with over 100 CLOSE occurrences in 1861 were:

Yorkshire - mainly Swaledale - (415)
Durham (205)
Lancashire - the majority around Wigan and Liverpool - (159)
Gloucestershire - centred around Minchinhampton (142).
A total of 113 occurred in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, mainly in and around Collyweston.

The most CLOSS occurrences in 1861 were in

Caernarvonshire (20) - believed to be descendants of a Swaledale CLOSE -
Middlesex (15)
Monmouthshire (10) (some of whom are elsewhere listed as CLOSE)
single figures in just 5 other counties of England & Wales.

Do you know of other 'hotspots' for these surnames? My research into Scottish census records suggests that the majority of people there named CLOSE or CLOSS (sometimes the same families appearing sometimes as CLOSE and sometimes as CLOSS) are of Irish descent.

Data

My core England & Wales data is available on my Guild datastores pages. I may also have additional information which isn't included there - and you may have information which is new to me, so send me an email so that we can help one another! You can search for England & Wales data covering

CLOSE and variants births 1837-1963
CLOSE and variants marriages 1837-1963
CLOSE and variants deaths 1837-1963.
CLOSE and variants wills and administration 1858-1930.
CLOSE and variants England & Wales census data 1841-1911

The CLOSE listings for the whole of the England and Wales census 1841-1911 are now (more or less!) complete. If you're able to help in preparing spreadsheets for Scotland and USA (or any other!) census data, I'd be delighted to collaborate with you.

Please let me know if you find any errors or if you can add further information. I'm grateful to those who have contacted me recently with additional information on CLOSE families. If you don't find what you are looking for, please contact me (details below) and I may be able to help.

DNA

I am a co-administrator for the CLOSE Y-DNA project operated by Family Tree DNA. I'm pleased to report that recently several additional male CLOSEs have joined the project, but we still need more people to be tested, so if you are male with the surname CLOSE, and have evidence of a male CLOSE ancestry for at least 4 generations (preferably more) then please consider taking a test. Test kits are available in the UK at a reduced price through the Guild of One-Name Studies (see my contact details below), or through the CLOSE project on Family Tree DNA. Follow this link for details of the Family Tree DNA project.

Links

The CLOSE datastore is a searchable database of CLOSE and variants births, marriages and deaths 1837-1960, as well as England & Wales Census records 1841 - 1911.

From time to time I add further detailed information about individual CLOSEs on my blog. Let me know if you have a story worth telling! I also have a large number of reconstructed trees on my CLOSE/CLOSS One-Name Study website.

Here are more weblinks where you just might find something of interest:

CloseAncestry.com - lots of information constantly being added to this site on Yorks, Lancs and other CLOSE families. Thanks, Andy Close and colleagues, for a really useful resource!
DNA project for males with CLOSE or variant surname.

Please get in touch if you know of a CLOSE & variants website which ought to be listed here - and let me know if any of the above links become broken. Thanks!

Contact Details

Mrs Margaret Southgate

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Close in the Guild Indexes

(Click on the number to view the search results in each index. Indexes marked by * are only accessible by logged in Guild members.)

Global Marriages (public) 7902
Global Marriages (members)* 8162
Inscriptions Index 1
Modern Newspaper Index 4
Probate Index* 44
Datastores (public) 34367
Datastores (members)* 5
References to the name Close in the Guild Journal 3

Is your surname here?