Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Flux
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Contact: Ms Carol Flux
The FLUX One-Name study officially commenced in 2009 when I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies and registered the surname. However it stems from over 20 years of research I have made into the Isle of Wight FLUX family, trying to trace my family history. As well as the FLUXs who lived and stemmed from the Isle of Wight, I became aware of other families in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. This led me to start collecting details of all the FLUXs world-wide, in an attempt to reconstruct the families and perhaps discover their origin.
The FLUX One-Name study is, and always be, unfinished. So far I have concentrated on the English FLUXs, and have not really tracked our descendents who emigrated. I am pleased to hear from anyone who is researching the FLUX surname, and am very grateful for any information or photographs that are sent to me.
There are a number of suggestions regarding the derivation of the FLUX name.
The surname database records the following:
Last name: Flux
This interesting and unusual surname is derived from the Old Norse personal name 'Floki', which was originally a byname meaning outspoken or enterprising; the name may have been given to a latter-day entrepreneur. This is one of the many Scandinavian names to have survived into modern surnames; other such names are Lawman, from the Old Danish 'Lag(h)man', Coleman, from 'Kalman', Swain, from 'Sueinn', and Drummond, from 'Dromundr'. The name development since 1609 (see below) includes the following: Joseph Floox (1694, London); Joseph Flukes (1787, London); John Flooks (1797, London); and Charles Fluck (1829, London). The modern surname can be found as Flook, Fluck, Flooks, Flucks and Flux. Among the recordings from London Church Registers are the marriage of John Flook and Anne Runacres on July 23rd 1749, at St. George's, Mayfair, Westminster, and the christening of George, son of Job and Ann Flook, on January 28th 1838, at St. Mary's Whitechapel Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Flooke, which was dated November 24th 1609, marriage to William Huffe, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London, during the reign of King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland, 1603 - 1625
Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/flux#ixzz1rvQIks88
One suggests it is Belgian Flemish, suggest thats the FLUXs were pirates and yet another suggests that there is a French origin.
So far I haven't found any really famous FLUXs.
Perhaps the most famous is Sir Alfred William FLUX.
Alfred Flux was born in the Landport district of Portsmouth in 1967, the son of a cement maker. He attended Portsmouth Grammar School then studied mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge where he was a Senior Wrangler in 1887 (sharing the honour in a tie with three others). While at Cambridge he became friends with Alfred Marshall, who interested him in economics. He was a foundation member of the Economic Society (1890), and from 1893 until 1908 taught economics, at Manchester and then at McGill University, Montreal. In 1897 while in Manchester he married Harriet Emily Hansen, a Danish woman.
Flux returned to London in 1908 to take up a post as advisor to the Commercial, Labour and Statistics Department. In 1918, he was appointed Head of the Statistics Department of the Board of Trade. The Royal Statistical Society awarded him the Guy Medal in Silver in 1921 and in Gold in 1930. He also served as President of the Society between 1928 and 1930.
Alfred Flux retired to Denmark in 1932 and was knighted in 1934. He died of pneumonia in 1942, aged 75. (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press)
There are several FLUXs who had interesting lifes and I will gradually add these to this website.
My database includes over 2700 individuals.
Public profiler (http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/) says that in 1881 there were 464 instances of the surname on the English census, making it the 7023 most popular name. By 1998 they find 418 occurences, and it drops to 10122 in popularity.
These are virtually all people born in the UK, either born as a FLUX, or marrying into the family. Although nowhere near complete, this data gives me a large amount of family reconstruction between 1838 and the current day.
Where possible, and with permissions, I have collected photographs of individuals.