One-name Study - Methods

Methods

In most other countries, one-name studies are much more difficult. Where civil-registration indexes are open to public search, they may not be online or gathered in the national capital, but are scattered through the states, as in Australia, or towns, as in France and the United States. In many countries, such as Germany, civil-registration and census data are regarded as a state prerogative: vital data are only available to the persons concerned and 19th-century census returns are not available at all.

One-name studies of the United States have become feasible thanks to the recent availability of online indexes to 19th-century and early-20th-century censuses.

More limited one-name studies can be conducted using other national indexes including:

• telephone and address directories
• registers of wills or deceased estates
• electoral rolls
• land possession records
• military service indexes

To obtain surname data from the 18th century and earlier, one-name researchers employ the International Genealogical Index (IGI) and vital records indexes compiled by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as catalogs to national archives.

One-name studies are generally rounded out with a miscellany of information drawn from national bibliographies, archival catalogs, patent databases, reports of law cases, tax lists, newspaper indexes and web searches. A one-name researcher is also expected to report on the linguistic origins of the surname and its use in placenames and corporate names.