Family movements

Reading the New Statesman the other day, I happened upon a fascinating article about the movement of families across the UK in the last century.

This site - www.spatial-literacy.org- allows you to type in your surname (or anyone's, for that matter), and see a map of where that family name can be found in the UK as per the 1998 general census, plus compare it with the whereabouts of the name after the previous census in 1881.

It also provides interesting facts such as which urban centre contains the greatest concentration of a surname (mine can mostly be found in Stevenage, of all places!), plus which overseas communities contain the largest expatriate community of a particular name.

To use:

- Log onto www.spatial-literacy.org

- Click on the "search for a surname" button on the right-hand side of the screen

- Click on the "start a surname search" link at the top of the screen

The rest is self-explanatory...

Hope you enjoy it - it was a fascinating experience for me personally :-)

Speak soon...