Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Padget
Variants: Padgett, Padgit, Padgitt, Paget, Paget, Pagett, Patchet, Patchett, Patchit, Patchitt
Category: 1 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is in its early stages.
Contact: Mrs Julie Sowden
I have only been researching Family history for about five years now despite the fact that it has been a long standing obsession with my close family. My father, late mother and brother have been researching for the last 30+ years.
When I initiated my own search I was totally oblivious to just how hooked I would become.
Other than close family I had very little knowledge of my maternal ancestry so when I came across Susannah Padget my great great grandmother I became totally enthralled with the whole family. Her father Walter seems to have been a bit of a lovable rogue and I found myself wanting to find out as much about them as I possibly could.
The variants I have registered are Padgett, Padgit, Padgitt, Paget, Pagett, Patchet, Patchett, Patchit and Patchitt. This has increased the size of my study and this has now become a far bigger project. This occurred naturally as I began to research as the spelling of the name seems to vary quite often on various documents. Someone could have a different spelling of their name at birth, marriage and death.
The origin of the name is English and was first found in Oxfordshire, where the Padgets were granted lands by Duke William of Normandy for their distinguished assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066 A.D. The name is a variation of “Page” the occupational name given to a young male servant.
The Paget family originally descended from Sir William Paget. Sir William was a close advisor to Henry 8th in 1553.
In 1815 Henry Paget a hero of the Battle of Waterloo and the 2nd Earl of Uxbridge created the title of Marquess of Anglesey in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
Other notable Paget's (Padgette's) are:
According to 1881 England, Wales & Scotland Census the The highest concentration of Padgets and similar name variations were in Yorkshire which is where I will start my search. I will then look at the rest of England and Wales and then Ireland.
In the short period of time I have been looking into this I have also come to realised that there are a high proportion of Padgets on the USA and Australia. I have Padget ancestors who emigrated to Australia and the USA so this would seem a logical route to follow next.
According to the Forebears site Padget is the 206,890 most common surname in the world. Add another T and Padgett is the 15,402nd most common surname in the world.
Whilst toying with the idea of researching this study I wanted to know just how large a task I had set myself. Initially I looked at the 1881 England, Wales & Scotland Census on Find my Past and I discovered that there were a total of 418 entries for Padget as opposed to 909 entries for Padgett. In addition to this there will also be people of that name that have been mis- transcribed. In reality as I have added more variants this initial figure was vastly underestimated.
At this present time I have so far collated the following records from the GRO and uploaded them into Custodian4:
England and Wales Birth Index :
1837 to 1983 20,349
1984 to 1992 712
England and Wales Marriage Index:
1837 to 1983 16,575
England and Wales Death Index:
1837 to 1983 15,599
There already is a Padgett DNA project in existence with Family Tree DNA. The origin for the Maternal Ancestors for this group are Germany, Italy, United States, Ireland and England. The group consists of 127 members.
I have a Facebook page and a website:
https://www.padgetonenamestudy.com/
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15rDSA5CM4/