5 86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ance of one name, which is probably peculiar to the parish, or to a 

 group of parishes, of which the one in question forms a component 

 part. We find names localized in groups, each group having a centre 

 of density, thinning off, so to speak, toward the edges, and overlapping 

 the groups of other names. In those times locomotion was difficult, 

 and country -people were content to remain where they were born, and 

 intermarry with their near neighbors ; but nowadays people are more 

 gad-about, and we should expect to find that such centres of names 

 were broken up. Let us look at a book which deals with names on a 

 large scale I mean the new " Doomsday-Book." This is not a very 

 good source for information on the subject, for the area, the county, is 

 too large, and the standard of admission for a name, the ownership of 

 land, too high for our purpose ; but it is easily consulted, and can give 

 us some idea of the localization of names. It will be seen that many 

 names are nearly confined to, or greatly preponderate in, certain coun- 

 ties. For instance, Goddard is a south-country name, numerous in 

 Hampshire and Wiltshire, occurring but seldom in the midland coun- 

 ties, and not met with in the north, not one person of that name ap- 

 pearing in the list of landowners for Yorkshire. Charlton occurs plen- 

 tifully in Northumberland, and seldom in the southern half of England. 

 Booth, Ibbotson, and several other names, have their headquarters in 

 the West Riding of Yorkshire, while even such common names as Tay- 

 lor, Robinson, and such like, occur much more frequently in some coun- 

 ties than in others. Five Shakespears hold land in Warwickshire, and 

 one in the adjoining county of Worcester, but in no other county does 

 the name appear. If names occur thus in groups in modern times, we 

 can easily understand that they were still more localized three or four 

 hundred years ago ; and if they are thus localized in a return of land- 

 owners, we should find the localization still more apparent if we were 

 to take into account the whole population of the various neighbor- 

 hoods. 



Of the importance of keeping a record of the genealogy of a family 

 it is needless to speak. It is to appeal to a very low standard of use- 

 fulness to point to the numbers of advertisements for next of kin, and 

 notices of unclaimed money. Since the establishment of a national 

 system of registration of births, marriages, and deaths, there is not so 

 much chance of the relationships of families being lost as there was in 

 the days of the more careless registration which preceded its institution. 

 But this only dates from 1837 ; and, moreover, the all-embracing nature 

 of the system causes so many names to be brought together, that an 

 extended search among them is a long and tiring process. It is a use- 

 ful auxiliary to private registration, but cannot wholly supersede it. 

 The date and place of either of the three occurrences in the life of a 

 person with which genealogy especially concerns itself being known, it 

 is easy to get an official record of the fact from the registrar-general ; 

 but to start with only a name, and to have to look through index after 



