The work on the Dallison/Darlison names was started by Malcolm John Dallison - he collected data from several co-workers both in the UK and world-wide.  Using this data, Malcom self-published two books “History in the Trees” in 1990 (A5 format) and “More History in the Trees - The Dallison Family” in 1999 (A4 format).

I am attempting to pick-up where he left off.

The registered variants of the name are Dallison and Darlison.

Over the time of our researchs we have found around 30 variants/deviants.  The commonest early versions are De Alenzun, De Alaunson, Alazon, Alencun and modern versions include Dallison, Dalison, Dalliston, Dalyson and Darlison.

The modern Dallison surname is a locative one derived from the French D’Alençon or De Alençon.  The original holders of the name would have originated in from Alençon in Normandy, France.  The town of Alençon is situated in the heart of Normandy and was an important seat of French nobility including members of the French royal family.

I have listed below holders of the surname:

• Norman Conquest - depending on the source consulted two knights potentially served with William the Conquerer at Hastings: Roger Montgomery D’Alençon and Bernard D’Alençon. 
• Domesday Book - Bernard is mentioned in the Domesday Book: he was associated with Rendlesham and Tuddenham in Suffolk as the immediate lord over the peasants after the Conquest.  Hervey of Bourges was his tenant-in-chief.
• 14^th Century Lincs. - Jean 3^rd d’Alençon who was the “Oyer and Terminor” judge for Lincolnshire in 1311.  He is known to have had his manor house at Wildsworth, a small village on the River Trent near Laughton in West Lindsey, Lincolnshire.
• English Civil War (1642 -1645) - Sir William Dalison (?), Sir Robert Dalison (1617-????), Sir Thomas Dalison (1591-????) and Sir Charles Dalison (1601-????) fought on the Royalist side.
• 20^th Century - Dallison Motor Car and Motorcycle of Birmingham was started by a George Joseph William Dallison who was born in London.
• Modern times - whilst searching on a popular auction site I came across references to the surnames associated to: an automotive illustrator, a footballer, a GP and author and a children’s author.

1881 Census

Carrying out name searches for Dallison and Darlison on the “FamilySearch” and “The Genealogist” websites gives very similar numbers of records:

Dallison 231 and 263 respectively which gives an average frequency of 1:104,558 (0.00095%)

Darlison 140 and 177 respectively which gives an average frequency of 1:163,454 (0.00061%)

1939 Register 

The number of records in the “Ancestry” data are as follows with calculated frequencies:

Dallison 536 1:71,052 (0.00141%)

Darlison 380 1:100,221 (0.00099%)

England and Wales 

1881 Census records within “The Genealogist” show the most populous counties are:

Dallison

London (80), Derbyshire (41), Nottinghamshire (38), Yorkshire (34) and Staffordshire (12).

Darlison

Warwickshire (61), London (39), Yorkshire (33), Leicestershire (26) and Nottinghamshire (6).

Worldwide Distribution

Carrying-out a simple search on the two surnames in Ancestry and FamilySearch the following numbers of references are found:

Dallison

Ancestry: 26,289

FamilySearch: 14,242

Darlison

Ancestry: 13,909

FamilySearch: 8,107

The highest concentrations are in:

Australia

Canada

New Zealand

South Africa

United States of America

Malcolm has recorded the work of his co-researchers in all of these countries except South Africa.

The Dallison/Darlison Study is in its very early days and the only large volumes of data assembled are extracted are from the FreeBMD website.  I am using this data along with Malcolm’s work to build the various branches of the Dallison/Darlison family tree.

The database holding the details of Dallison and Darlison Study contains records extracted from the following sources:

UK Births, Marriages and Deaths

All the births, marriages and deaths recorded in the FreeBMD have been extracted.  The numbers extracted in each category are detailed below, the bracketed number is the count of those who have been attributed to persons in the various branches of the family tree.

Dallison

Births       1,357      (191)

Marriages 942 (30)

Deaths       743     (3)

Darlison

Births        952    (24)

Marriages 639    (10)

Deaths       532    (10)

Census Data

Data extracted from the census records for each family unit researched is recorded a database, at the time of writing there are 259 Dallison and 19 Darlison records.

1939 Register

Again, as the various  branches of the family tree are being built, the record details are being extracted from the 1939 Register.  There are currently 60 Dallison and five Darlison records.

CWGC

In the Commonwealth and War Graves Commission database there are references to four Dallisons and seven Darlisons.

Bedworth Parish Records

The origins of my branch of the family is from Bedworth in Warwickshire, where the name was Darlison.  A family reconstruction project for Darlison records occurring in the Bedworth Parish Records is underway.  There are 96 instances of Darlison from the second half of the 17^th century in the database.

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