The LAPHAM genealogy one-name study aims to capture all recorded occurrences of people with the LAPHAM surname (and variants) worldwide, and study their origins, with a particular emphasis on family reconstruction. 

This study was launched in 2012, when I was looking for a project to run alongside my studies for a postgraduate course in Family History at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at Dundee University. Surnames from my own family lines were far too common to even attempt such a task, but my mother-in-law's maiden name of LAPHAM was sufficiently unusual to capture my interest.

Ten years on, the study has recorded over 11,500 named individuals with the LAPHAM surname worldwide, plus their spouses, but I'm always on the lookout for more.

All the published censuses in the UK and Ireland, USA and Canada have been checked, along with BMD and cemetery records, electoral rolls, military records, and many more sources too numerous to list here.

Please get in touch if you would like to share any information or have any questions.

• Lopham
• Lipham - This surname has  only been found in the USA. The earliest LIPHAM I have recorded was Frederick Jacob Lipham, born c.1722 probably in Virginia, USA. It is my hypothesis that this is a variant of the LAPHAM surname, although no evidence has yet been discovered. The study has recorded over 1400 LIPHAMs, all descended from this one individual. The majority resided in Georgia and Alabama, USA, with the largest groupings in Anniston, Calhoun County, AL, and in Randolph and Heard counties in GA.

• Lapum - This surname has only been found in USA and Canada. The earliest LAPUM recorded in the study is Abraham (Abram) Lapum, born c.1760 probably in New York state, USA. It is my hypothesis that this is a variant of the LAPHAM surname, although no evidence has yet been discovered. The study has recorded 94 LAPUMs, all descended from this one individual. The majority resided in New York state, USA or in Ontario, Canada, with the largest grouping in and around the township of Loyalist, Lennox & Addington county, Ontario, Canada.
• Lapam/Lappam
• Gaboriault dit Lapalme

Surnamedb.com definition:

This interesting surname is of English locational origin from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from the maps in Britain. The prime cause of these ‘disappearances’ was the enforced ‘clearing’ and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348, also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The placename is composed of the Old English elements, ‘Hlappa’ an Old English personal name, or ‘Laeppa’ (Old English) meaning tag, end, and also a district. The second element ‘-ham’, is the Old English word for a village or homestead but can also mean a flat low-lying meadow on a stream.

Dictionary of American Family Names definition on ancestry.com:

Apparently a habitational name from a lost or unidentified place, possibly in Somerset or Wiltshire where the surname is clustered, but perhaps a variant of Lopham, a habitational name from a place in Norfolk, England.

Prominent Laphams

• Deborah B Lapham (1801-1868), married Rev Jonathan Wade (1798-1872) – American Baptist missionaries in Burma
• Samuel Lapham (1805-1876) – Irish Prison superintendant, Tasmania, Australia
• Increase Allen Lapham (1811-1875) – American author, scientist and naturalist. Founder of the Wisconsin Natural History Association. 
• Elbridge Gerry Lapham (1814-1890) – American politician. US Senator from New York from 1881-1885 
• Nathan Lapham (1820-1890) – American politician and member of New York State Senate in 1860 and 1861.
• William Berry Lapham (1828-1894) – American local historian and genealogist. Published Lapham Family Register: Or Records of Some of the Descendants of Thomas Lapham of Scituate, Mass., in 1635
• Lewis Henry Lapham (1858-1934) – American entrepreneur. One of the founders of Texaco Oil company. 
• Nathan David Lapham (1871- 1958) – American lawyer and judge in New York state
• Roger Dearborn Lapham (1883-1966) – American businessman and mayor of San Francisco from 1944-1948. Son of Lewis Henry Lapham. 
• Claude Erastus Lapham (1888-1957) – American composer, who wrote music for a number of Earl Carroll productions as well as over 200 songs, operas, operattas and sonatas.
• Ernest Frederick (Ernie/Curly) Lapham (1901-2000) - Australian rugby league player for St George and South Sydney clubs. Also represented New South Wales between 1926-1928
• Lewis Abbott Lapham (1909-1995) – American businessman. Founder of the American Hawaiian Steamship Company. Son of Roger Dearborn Lapham 
• Major Robert Blair Lapham (1917-2003) – American soldier in the Philippines 
• William Gaius (Bill) Lapham (1932-2016) – American NFL football player with Philadelphia Eagles in 1958 and Minnesota Vikings in 1961
• Lewis Henry Lapham Jr (1935- ) – American publisher. Editor of Harper’s Magazine. Founder of Lapham’s Quarterly magazine. Son of Lewis Abbott Lapham
• Anthony Abbott Lapham (1936-2006) – American CIA lawyer. Son of Lewis Abbott Lapham
• Dave Lapham (1952- ) – American NFL football player with Cincinnati Bengals from 1974-1983, now a broadcaster and commentator
• David Lapham (1970-) – American comic book writer, artist and cartoonist
• Kyle Lapham (1986- ) – English footballer with Swindon Town FC 
• Jake Lapham (c.1990-) – Australian journalist with ABC News, Sydney, New South Wales

Famous by marriage

• Harriet Lapham (1815-1866) married John Horatio Leigh Hunt, the son of English poet and critic Leigh Hunt 
• Andrew P Lapham (1973- ) married businesswoman, lawyer and politician Caroline Anne Mulroney, daughter of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney. 

Other Lapham connections

• Lapham’s Quarterly – American magazine founded by Lewis Henry Lapham (1935-), and still in publication.
• Lapham-Hickey Steel Corporation – American-based business founded in 1926 by Edward Lapham and Burnham Darwin Lapham (1896-1973)
• The Rise of Silas Lapham - Novel by by William Dean Howells published in 1885

Places

• Rockford, MI, USA. Formerly called Laphamville, the town was founded in 1844 by Smith Lapham (1804-1884) 
• Stateline, CA, USA. Formerly called Laphams, the town is associated with William Wallace Lapham (1819-1903) who opened a hotel there in the 1850s 
• Lapham Mills, Peru, NY, USA
• Lapham Peak State Forest near Milwaukee, WI, USA
• Tenney-Lapham neighbourhood in Madison, WI, USA
• North/South Lopham Villages in Norfolk, UK, possibly one of the origins of the LAPHAM name
• Lapham-Patterson House, Thomasville, GA, USA. Built between 1884–85 as a winter cottage for prosperous shoe merchant Charles Willard Lapham (1852-1919) of Chicago, IL. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
• Waveny Park in New Canaan, CT, USA. Former home of Lewis Henry Lapham (1858-1934) and Ruth Lapham Lloyd (1896-1984)

In the UK, the LAPHAM surname is most commonly found in southern counties, particularly Somerset and Wiltshire, with a significant grouping in and around the village of Kilmington (now in Somerset, but formerly in Wiltshire).