Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

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    • 2,143 members
    • 2,063 studies
    • 7,329 surnames

Retained profile for the former
Plester One-Name Study

This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.

About the study

The purpose of this One-Name Study is to find and record all references to the Plester surname regardless of whether there is any known family connection and irrespective of the country in which the references are found.

Variant names

From my own research, I know that the surname has been spelt in a number of different ways at different times and my interest therefore extends to the following additional surnames: Plaster, Plastow, Plastowe, Playsted, Playstow, Playstowe, Pleaster, Pleastow, Pleister, Plesster, Plested, Plestedde, Plesters, Plesto, Plestor, Plestow, Plestowe, Plestwo, Pleysted, and Plister.

Name origin

It has been suggested that the surname is locative and has been linked to Plaistow. On the other hand, the 'er' ending could suggest an occupational origin. The only thing I know for certain is that the surname existed in both England and Prussia in the late 1500s.

Name frequency

Analysis of the first 150 years of GRO Indexes for England & Wales reveals that Plester births were just 5.7 per year. Calculations based upon the 1851 and 1881 census for England and Wales show the density or the Plester surname to be approximately 7 per million of the population.

Distribution of the name

At the time of the 1841 census, the 'Banburyshire' area accounted for 75% of those with the Plester surname, with a further 10% living in London. (Banburyshire is an old term used to describe those parts of Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, and Warwickshire that came under the economic and social influence of Banbury)

Links

More information about this study can be found at www.plester.info

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Plester 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  46
  • Inscriptions Index  1
  • Probate Index* 5

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