Mycock

Mycock One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Mycock

Variants: Micock, Micocke, Mycocke

Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.

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

Contact: Mr Ken Mycock

About the study

The Mycock One Name Study started at sometime between 1998 and 2004. It's difficult to be precise, as like many such studies, it originates with an attempt to resolve a difficulty in my own family history. In the 1980s I began looking for the birth/ baptism of my 3xgreat grandfather John MYCOCK and discovered that there were three such baptised in his home village in the space of 26 months. The attempt to find out which one was my ancestor resulted in gathering a large amount of information on Mycocks in general. The one name study evolved from that accumulation and was registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 2004.

Variant names

Apart from the two registered names (MYCOCK(E) & MICOCK(E)), other variants include MAYCOCK and MEACOCK. The main concentration the MAYCOCKs is south of the Mycock homelands (see below), but in some cases the name was used almost interchangeably with Mycock. This applies particularly to Maycock, with names being recorded as either variant even in the same family grouping, particularly in Taddington in Derbyshire, up to the 19th century. The MEACOCKs are mainly clustered around north-west Cheshire, particularly in the Wirral area.
As there are significantly more Maycocks and Meacocks than there are Mycocks, the one name study was restricted to the registered variants to keep it to a (hopefully!) manageable size. However, where there are known or suspected name changes within a family group, these variants are included in the study records.
Micok, Mycok etc are considered to be spelling variations of Mycock, rather than variants and are included in the study. Strictly, the two 'variants' with final a final 'e' are also spelling variations, but were registered for completeness.
Although frequently confused with Mycock, even today, Mycroft is believed to be a distinct surname.
Myco(e) now appears to be largely derived from Mycocks changing their name, so is included in the study from the late 19th century onwards. It is not included as a registered name as there were an unconnected group of people of that name (or Mico(e)) in the south-west of England (primarily Somerset & Devon) from the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries (244 entries in the IGI, but none in UK censuses before 1901).

Name origin

Mycock appears to be a northern English name, with the main concentration in the Peak District, comprising north Derbyshire and north Staffordshire. In these two county areas, the main concentrations of the surname are found in Flagg and Grindon respectively. There is also a significant, but smaller grouping in and around Sheffield, which is not far from the north Derbyshire border. Other groupings in the Potteries, Cheshire and what is now Greater Manchester are believed to be economic migrations from the rural Peak District.
To date, there are no known origins of the name outside England, although the origins of a group of MICOCKs in the Seychelles are, as yet, unclear (see below).
Published sources state that the surname, with the variants mentioned above (and others including MAYHEW), is a patronymic, originally meaning 'son of Matthew'. As such it may be expected that there is more than one source of the name in different geographical locations, although the concentration in and around the Peak District suggests there may be fewer than might be expected for other patronymics. The geographic distribution of the variants is almost certainly a function of spelling reflecting differences in pronunciation, particularly between the north and south of England.

Name frequency

From the index of the 1881 census produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints, there were 1,026 Mycocks recorded in that census (there were no Micocks). This gives a frequency of 3.44 in 100,000 of the total population.
According to the Taliesin Arlein ONS Names database, which is an extract of an Office of National Statistics database for surnames in use in England, Wales and the Isle of Man, there were 1,460 Mycocks in September 2002, ranking it =4,865th in the country. Using the factors suggested on the Taliesin Arlein site indicates that there may be about 1,350 living Mycocks and that over 5,000 people would have had the surname since the start of parish registers in the 16th century.

Distribution of the name

In the 1881 census, only 22 (2.1%) of the Mycocks were outside the counties of Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. All of these are now known to be within one generation of the main counties, including two females in Scotland. Staffordshire accounted for 323 (31.5%), followed by Derbyshire 223 (21.7%), Lancashire 218 (21.3%), Yorkshire 159 (15.5%) and Cheshire 81 (7.9%). In terms of population density, the results for Derbyshire and Staffordshire are reversed, with 49 and 33 per 100,000 population respectively; the densities in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire were all below 15 per 100,000.
The only known modern-day MICOCKs are in the Seychelles, but as yet they have not been linked back to the English families. If you are connected to these families or know any more about them or their origins, I would very much like to hear from you!

Data

The study database currently includes over 62,000 name index entries. These include:

Complete 1851, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 UK censuses and significant portions of 1841, 1861 and 1911.
GRO Birth, Marriage & Death Index entries from 1837 to 2005. Of the 1,181 marriage entries before 1911 when the surname of the spouse was not included in index entries, 865 have now been linked to spouses (nearly 75%) and 834 have the actual place (church, chapel, registry office etc) of the marriage identified. Thanks to fellow Guild member Rod Clayburn, six GRO entries for MICOCK have been found (3 deaths, 2 marriages and 1 birth).
Transcripts of register entries from significant parishes, particularly Grindon, Flagg and Taddington, but including many others.
All Mycock/ Micock entries from the IGI (International Genealogical Index) and British Vital Records Index produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints.
All relevant entries from the UK National Burials Index (Second Edition) produced by the Federation of Family History Societies

DNA

A DNA project has been underway since 2005, in conjunction with a fellow Guild member who is interested in investigating possible links between north Staffordshire families. Until we have more Mycock participants from a wider range of known trees, it is too early to draw firm conclusions about the surname's origins.
However, initial results are encouraging and indicate that apparently separate trees from Flagg, Grindon and Manchester/ Stockport probably share a common ancestor between four and six hundred years ago (ie possibly before the beginning of Parish Registers, but since the adoption of surnames). This gives more weight to the theory of a common Peak District origin (see above).
If you would like to know more about the project and how to participate, please see the project website and/ or get in touch.

Contact Details

Mr Ken Mycock

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Mycock 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) 1075
Global Marriages (members)* 1078
Probate Index* 11
Datastores (members)* 3
References to the name Mycock in the Guild Journal 3

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