Our speaker on 3rd May 2025 was Jo Heron. Overcoming the technical difficulties which presented themselves, Jo nevertheless gave us an interesting talk on the pleasures and pitfalls of following a single name search. She informed us that when she was working at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society in Leeds there was criticism of family historians as they were seen as not very academic but people who are researching their family history reveal a great deal of information.
Jo went right back to the beginnings of communication as a need to identify one group of people from another – friend or foe. Pre history was before history was written down; Greek and Roman writers would have written names down. Post Roman, it was mainly the clergy recording names as many people would not have been able to write. As Christianity was the main religion given names would have followed on from the Bible. Surnames came out of a need to further identify people and possibly originated through nicknames or appearance – black, grey, cold, small etc. Occupations played a part eg John the Baker. Landmarks also helped – wood, heath, by water.
Jo then explained that in 1068 William I listed all the properties in the country which became known as the Domesday survey, and people believed it was the end of the world they knew. Anyone who refused to be recorded had their estates destroyed and people were killed – this became known as the harrying of the north. We were given a picture of how every aspect of people’s lives were controlled.
Early records contained minimum detail and women were used as pawns to create alliances and had little choice in who they were married to.
Jo gave us an outline of the languages used in old documents – Old English, Latin, French, introduced by William into the courts, and New English.
Joining a society like the Metcalfe Society can be helpful to researchers, as can family history societies. The Family History Federation covers the whole country and they can be contacted for information. Jo explained that over a generation of about 20 years it doesn’t take long to reach a great number of names within your tree. She told us to be cautious of census records; people would have had accents, enumerators would have made errors and variants of a name could easily be created when information was recorded in error.
Jo gave us her own personal story of researching the Metcalfe name and how the society came into being, with over 2500 members now and the books which the society has produced. She told us about the Guild of One Name Studies which has over 2000 members, databases including 7500 names and 2000 individual studies. It is sometimes possible to find out the whole history of your family’s name.
We were told how family lines develop, how families moved around and how religion played a part. Jo concluded her talk by reminding us that although it could be rewarding, a study of one particular name can be far from easy.
Lorraine Simpson
