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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

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Welsman/Willsman One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Willsman

Variants: Wellsman, Welsman, Wilsman

Category:  2 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way, but currently in some countries only.

Website: rootsreconnected.wordpress.com/willsman/

DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/groups/willsman/about/background

Contact:  Liz Craig


About the study

I started tracing my family history about 20 years ago and discovered that my great grandmother Ivy Edith's surname was Willsman. I didn't realise just how unusual the name was/is until I started tracing her ancestral line. I also became aware during census searches etc that the surname seemed to be Devon-centred. Aware that the name was unusual, I collected all references I found to the surname Willsman just in case it might come in useful later. I have always been interested in the history & origin of names. Then I heard about The Guild of One Name Studies! Through my membership of the Guild, I have learned a great deal about how to study a surname in a thorough and systematic way. I also learned that it is important to think flexibly about the spellings of surnames. 

Variant names

A variant is a different spelling of a name which is not just a one-off misspelling; it is a name which (according to The Guild) a person is known to have used through signature evidence, or which has been used by officials consistently and persistently over a number of years. When I started researching my Willsman line, I saw the name spelled as Welsman, Wellsman & Wilsman, so have registered these as variants, and began to investigate whether there was any connection between these families. It seems that the name originated as Welsman, and the name spellings Wellsman and Willsman are (generally) borne by specific branches which can be traced back to the Welsman family. But was the name spelled differently before that? I have found early instances of the Welsman name being spelled as Wyllesman, Wilsman and Wilshman.

Name origin

When I started researching the name, I looked up the meanings of the variant spellings of W*lsman. The National Trust Names website said “English - Occupational Name; Ending with *man”. The Public Profiler website also said it was of English origin. My own research into the W*lsman variants point to the name possibly originating in Devon, so this, at least, seems accurate.

Many years ago, I naively bought a surname history from a market stall selling computerised surname histories. In examining its claims closely, I have come to realise that these potted surname histories are not the most reliable of sources. One of its theories is that Willsman perhaps might mean son of William, but I have not yet found any evidence to support this.

I looked up the meaning of a similar name - Wellman. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames, Wellman/Welman means dweller by a well or stream. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames says that Wellsman/Welsman means Welshman. Variants are Welshman & Welchman. Willsman was not included in the initial scope of the project which gave rise to this publication (The Family Names of the UK Project) as it had under 100 name bearers at the time of the 1881 census, but there is a second wave of the project, which will include rarer surnames.

An esteemed expert on surnames, George Redmonds, says that much of what has been written previously about surname history is assertion; it is important to combine surname study with family history as much as etymology (the study of the origin and history of words). The study of words and sounds is not enough to reach a conclusion as to the origin of the name. Each surname is unique, beginning with one person or family at a particular time and a particular place. The metamorphosis of Welsman to Wellsman and Willsman illustrates this perfectly.

Historical occurrences of the name

My market stall surname history said: “The surname Willsman is a baptismal name the son of Gilmyn. The name was brought to England in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Early records of the name mention Gilaman filius Gilandi, 1100, Yorkshire. Other names mentioned include John Wylemin of Bucks in 1273, William Wyleman of Cambridge and John Wyleman of London all in the same year. Also documented at the same time were Walter Gilmin of Oxfordshire, John Gyleman of Bucks, Gylemin Coc of Kent. Cristopher Gylemyn was documented during the reign of Edward III (1327-77) in Somerset. Gilmyn Rogeri of Yorkshire was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379 as was Johannes Gyleman. Waldeof filius Gilmin was recorded in Yorkshire in the year 1400. There was the record of a marriage license issued to John Carter and Gylmen Haverd in 1546 in the Faculty Office. Later records include Harold Gilman (1878 - 1919) an English artist born in Rode, Somerset. The name is also spelt Gillman and Gilmin.” To me, these names closely resemble original forms of the name Wileman or Willman – but not W*lsman. In all its variants, the W*lsman name has always retained its central 's'; I have yet to find a variant of this surname which does not have it.

Looking at distribution maps of the W*lsman name, W*lsman did not appear in Yorkshire until much later, and the family who lived there were descended from a Devon Welsman family. 

Name frequency

In 1881, the highest incidence of the Willsman surname was in Devon. Of the 27 Willsmans in the 1881 census, 14 were born in Devon and 10 of them are my family. 8 were born in Essex. 2 were born in Bristol but were the wife & daughter of one of my Devon Willsman clan. 3 were unmarried women (i.e. Willsman was their birth name) born in unexpected places and one of those was a transcription error, but I need to investigate these further.

I found 2 people surnamed Willsman, born Germany, living USA - perhaps their Willsman surname evolved in a different way. However, I have checked the Digital Dictionary of Surnames in Germany and there were no entries for Willsman or its variants.

I also checked for one of my registered variants, Welsman (124 of them), and the distribution was similar - predominantly Devon, which is reassuring, with a healthy sprinkling over Dorset & Middlesex.

All this confirms my theory that Willsman is a Devon surname.

I checked the most recent Electoral Roll online and discovered that there were only 6 people surnamed Willsman registered! The name is becoming rarer.

Distribution of the name

According to the Public Profiler website (2008), Welsman/Willsman is an English surname. Historically, the highest concentration of W*lsman has always been in Devon, but there are early instances of the name in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and a handful of other instances in Sussex and Suffolk. 

Highest incidences of the name in the UK are in (descending order) Devon, Newport, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and Northamptonshire. In New Zealand, the Willsman surname occurs in Queenstown, Dunedin City and Christchurch; this family descend from the Devon Willsman family.

 

Data

Data collection is a work in progress. Core sources completed so far include the following and more:
All entries from the UK Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes
Censuses for England, Wales & Scotland: 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 & 1911
The 1911 Irish census
The 1939 Register
The IGI
Otterton Poor Relief records
I’ve used various records to compile my own index of W-lsman men who served in the military
2002 & 2009 electoral roll/phone directory/director list
 
I have created a database starting with the UK Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes as a base, and then adding worldwide entries. I am adding additional detail to these entries using birth/marriage/death certificates, parish registers, newspapers, service records and other sources. These are currently stored in an Excel spreadsheet; I would like to put these online in a database format, but am unsure of the best way to do this.
 
I am currently focusing on extracting parish/church register entries for all variants.

DNA

Male W*lsman volunteers wanted! I have established a yDNA Willsman/Wilsman/Welsman/Wellsman DNA Project at Family Tree DNA - you need to be male and bear the W*lsman surname to join. If anyone is willing to contribute a cheek swab I will happily pay for a yDNA test for the first two W*lsman men (from different lineages) who volunteer! It is a harmless genealogical DNA test, the test result is a string of numbers, and contains no personal information. The Y DNA test tells you about your direct male line, which would be your father, his father, and so on back in time.

However, as the W*lsman name is so unusual, I have established another Willsman/Wilsman/Welsman/Wellsman project, also at Family Tree DNA, which is open to both men and women.  

The yDNA (male name-bearers) project is here
The autosomal (male & female W*lsman descendants) is here

The goals of the project are to:
* Discover information to help with our family history research
* Discover which family trees are related
* Discover information to help with brick walls
* Confirm surname variants
* Validate family history research
* Get on file a DNA sample for trees at risk of extinction of the male line
* Discover information about our distant origins

Links

My other genealogical interests:
My Willsman (and other) family history is on my website
Temple Lodge Home for Inebriate Women website
...and you can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Contact Details

Liz Craig

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Willsman 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.)
  • Marriage Index 1837-1945* 2
  • BMD Index* 15

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

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  • Guild Marriage Locator

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