• Home
    • About the Guild
    • About one-name studies
    • Starting your ONS
    • Conducting ONS (videos)
    • Join Us
    • Guild Shop
  • Studies
    • Surnames A-Z
    • Recent Registrations
    • Registered Websites
    • Registered Societies
  • News
    • General News
  • Forums
    • Guild Facebook page
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Conference & AGM
    • Seminar events
    • Webinar Events
  • Resources
    • Journal
    • Members’ Websites
    • DNA
    • Modern Surnames
    • Those Who Served
    • Newspaper Index
    • Guild Indexes
    • Pharos ONS Courses
    • Speakers
  • Help
    • Reset your password
    • Contact Us
  • Log In

Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,687 members
    • 2,391 studies
    • 8,463 surnames

Plester One-Name Study

Page Views: 1,933

Study details

Study: Plester

Variants: Pleister, Plesters, Plestow, Plestowe, Plister

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

Contact: Mr John Plester


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

Contact Details

Mr John Plester

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.)
  • Marriages of the World (public)  2
  • Marriage Index 1837-1945* 46
  • Probate Index* 5
  • World Wide Marriages Index* 1
  • BMD Index* 3
  • Members' Data Stores in which the name Plester appears* 2

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Project
  • Surname Cloud
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: guild@one-name.org
Address for correspondence:
c/o Secretary, 113 Stomp Road,
Burnham, Berkshire, SL1 7NN, U.K.
Registered office address:
Box G, 14 Charterhouse Buildings,
Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA U.K.
Call us free on:
UK: 0800 011 2182
US & Canada: 1-800-647-4100
Australia: 1800 305 184

Follow Us


  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • YouTube

  • RSS Feed

Guild of One-Name Studies Policies:    Privacy   Membership Conditions   Sales   COVID-19 Impact

© 2013–2021 Guild of One-Name Studies. Registered Charity in England and Wales, No. 802048.