The name ORLANDO is an Italian name, with my own research focusing on Sicily, but nevertheless, material about the origins of the name, is short supply and is linked to the name of Roland. Details about this part of the study appear elsewhere, except to say try putting the name ORLANDO into a search engine, I used Google, and once you have discarded the many sites about a holiday in Orlando Florida, there are some interesting sites and further lines of enquiry.

One of the initial things that made me decide to research the name more fully was stumbling across a marriage reference in Woking Surrey England in 1901 of an Orlando, nothing odd in that, except that my own branch of the Orlando's did not arrive in the area until sixty years later, or did they? Every study has a catalyst and this was mine.

Linked with the Orlando One Name Study is the Sutera One Place Study which is the commune in Sicily that my own family hails from.

Earlier in 2017 I submitted the study to the Members Website Project, which is a benefit of Guild membership. The website can be found HERE and I am gradually adding to the database and uploading all the material I have collated over the years. 

I also created a newsletter called Orlando News which is available to download or read via the Orlando website and a copy of each edition is also lodged with the British Library and the Guild library. There is also a Facebook group, which I am hoping will grow and develop over time and a DNA project.

In recent years there have been a number of articles & blog posts published about the Orlando One-Name Study. In addition I have also given several presentations about the Study.

• March 2015 - Origins & Evolution of a One-Name or Surname Study - Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Webinar series.
• February 2017 - Orlando DNA Project - Family Tree Magazine (UK)
• October 2017  - Setting up a One-Name Study which features the Orlando study - Family Tree Magazine (UK)
• October 2017 - Pathway to My Sicilian Heritage - Legacy Family Tree Blog
• October 2017 - Starting Your Italian Research Journey - Legacy Family Tree Blog
• November 2017 I decided to rework the March 2015 presentation, the Origins and Evolution of a One-Name Study for the Guild and a copy of the presentation sits on the main website, but as it is about the Orlando study it would be quite wrong to not have a copy of it here. A syllabus has been written to accompany the presentation and that can be downloaded HERE

• January 2018 - From a Single Name – Beginnings of an Italian One-Name Study ~ Journal of One-Name Studies, Vol 13, Issue 1, pp 30-32 ~ Jan-March 2018, for which I was awarded the Guild Award of Excellence.
• August 2018 - My Italian Surname Study ~ Guild of One-Name Studies 7 Pillars Webinar Series, joint presentation with Michael Cassara of the Cuono One-Name Study