THE links between the disciplines of linguistics, local history and DNA are obvious.
But rarely have they been so successfully exploited than in a book by three authors, one of them our own international surnames expert, Dr George Redmonds of Lepton.
These three approaches to ancestry come together powerfully in Surnames, DNA and Family History co-written by George, geneticist Turi King and local history specialist David Hey of Sheffield University.
Between them they track down a large number of British names, tracing their origins to different parts of the British Isles and Europe.
It’s often the case that surnames can often be traced back several centuries in the area where they are concentrated.
The authors speculate on the reasons why some surnames die out and why others have spread across the world.
DNA is being employed more and more often to find out whether the bearers of a surname have single, dual or multiple origins, and if surname variations have a common origin.
Startlingly, an example of surname ‘clusters’ comes from the Examiner’s own archives via Dr Redmonds.
In 2009, a rose bowl was presented to the Huddersfield and District Bowling veterans by local businessman Ian Armitage, accompanied by the association’s president, Frank Lockwood.
The bowlers in the picture had the surnames of Bray, Crowther, Firth, Haigh, Hoyle, Pogson, Sheard and Sykes.
All 10 names can be found in local parish registers from 1538.
Nine of the names had their origins within six miles of Huddersfield, taking their history back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Sheard was the ‘new boy’; his family had moved into the Calder Valley by 1538, probably from Lancashire.
Surnames, DNA and Family History, Oxford University Press, £20.
