Surnames have effectively taken over my life for the last year, and in the last couple of months I've been working on this book for very long hours seven days a week. When I accepted the suggestion of writing the book I hadn't realised quite what a marathon task it would be, simply because I hadn't quite anticipated the sheer volume of literature that had already been published on the subject. It's been a huge amount of work but I'm pleased with the way the book has turned out.This is essentially the book that I would have liked to have had available when I started out on my own surname research. It's intended as a practical guide to all the different aspects of surname research, but I've also provided some background on surnames in general, drawing on the research from all the many different disciplines that are now involved in surname research, emphasising in particular the contribution that can be made by the family historian. The book includes links to hundreds of relevant websites, an extensive bibliography, and numerous detailed appendices with information on all the essential resources for a surname study both online and offline. The text is supported by a long list of 190 references. The contents are listed below.
Foreword by Derek Palgrave
Introduction
Chapter 1: The history of surnames
Chapter 2: The classification of surnames
Chapter 3: Variants and deviants
Chapter 4: Surname mapping
Chapter 5: Surname frequency
Chapter 6: Has it been done before?
Chapter 7: Laying the foundations - the key datasets
Chapter 8: Surname origins - pre-1600 resources
Chapter 9: DNA and surnames
Chapter 10: One-name studies
Appendices
Appendix A: Genealogy websites
Appendix B: Surname websites
Appendix C: Lay subsidy rolls
Appendix D: Organisations and journals
Appendix E: Linguistic resources
Appendix F: Place-name resources
Appendix G: Population statistics
Bibliography
© Debbie Kennett 2012
Looks good! Wish the book was out sooner as I could do with it as guidance. At the moment, I am just winging it with regards to surname origin, frequency, etc.
ReplyDeleteI hope to progress to a proper One Name Study in the future - perhaps after reading your book :-)
I hope you like the book. You can get lots of help and advice if you join the Guild of One-Name Studies:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.one-name.org
I see that one of the names you're researching is Irving. Have you been in touch with James Irvine? He's been researching the surname for 30 years or more and now runs the Irvine DNA Project:
http://www.dnastudy.clanirwin.org/