Guild of One-Name Studies

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Windlow One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Windlow   

Variants: Windlaw, Windley, Windlo, Winlow, Wyndlow

Category:  1 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is in its early stages.

Website: www.windlow.org.uk/

Contact:  Jacqueline Brown

About the study

Hello!
I had researched my paternal family tree for several years and decided that the time was right to follow my maternal family tree.  This led me to want to find out as much as possible about the Windlow surname as there are not many documented.   So, I have embarked on a Windlow One Name Study and also completed the Introduction to One Name Studies Course offered by Pharos

Variant names

The Guild of One Name Studies defines a variant as:' ... a name spelling which varies from the primary name spelling (or another variant spelling) used by that person's ancestors and which is:
  • A name spelling that the person was known to have used, through signature evidence on wills, marriage bonds etc or other documents originating from the individual concerned, or
  • A name spelling used by officials on a consistent and persistent basis over a period of years'.
  • A reason for this may be that the name has several different variant spellings - our ancestors did not always know how to spell (if they could write!) their own names correctly.
  • Sometimes a person'€™s name would appear differently on the birth certificate, the marriage certificate and the death certificate and indeed, on a census record if the enumerator misheard the surname perhaps because of a dialect.
I will concentrate my initial study to Windlow, and 5 varients: Windlo, Wyndlow, Windlaw, Windley and Winlow using the available data.

Name frequency

  • The WINDLOW surname has a 0.14 Frequency Per Million (FPM) in USA and 0.04 FPM in UK.
  • The WINLOW surname has a frequency of 4.1 FPM in UK and in Canada 0.23 FPM and USA 0.14 FPM.
  • Other Variants show: Wyndlow - Canada 0.23 FPM (Ontario 3.16 FPM) and Windelow - Denmark 2.93 FPM and USA 0.04 FPM

Distribution of the name

In the UK, WINDLOW is documented in the North of England - in the counties of Northumberland and Durham.
There are also records in Canada and USA, Australia and Denmark.

Data

I have collected data from various resources that I have consulted so far, although not complete by any means.
These include indexes of:
  • births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales 1837 - 2005,
  • Scottish Births & Baptisms 1774,
  • LDS Vital Records Indexes for Australia, UK and USA, and New Zealand BDM records.
  • Census records for England and Wales from 1841-1911.
  • US Census 1900,
  • LDS Canada 1881 Census.
  • Migration records - UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960,
  • Passport Applications 1851-1862, 1874-1903,
  • Crew and Passenger Lists,
  • Ellis Island Passenger Arrival Records (1892 - 1924)
  • New Zealand Passenger Lists 1890.
  • Military records, newspapers and other databases such as the India Office List 1933
  • Historical Directories, and Insolvency records are all useful sources for a one name study.
There are many other sources available and will be used to create a fuller picture of the Windlow name and its varients.

Links

*The Windlow One Name Study Web site*
www.windlow.org.uk
*Other websites useful for One Name Studies*
  • www.one-name.org - Guild of One Name Studies is the world's leading organisation for one-name studies.
  • www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk - the findings of a project based at University College London (UCL) that is investigating the distribution of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic.
  • www.surnamedb.com - a large FREE to access database (almost 50,000 surnames) on the history and meaning of family last names.
*Useful Genealogy Websites*
  • www.freebmd.org.uk/ General Register Office indexes of births, marriages and deaths available to anyone
*Personal Web Sites* www.woodfamilyhistorians.org.uk/ Wood Family History - following my paternal line, and my www.windlowfamilytree.org.uk/ Windlow Family History - following my maternal line website is an ongoing project

Contact Details

Jacqueline Brown

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Windlow 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  4

Other Guild Websites

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