SURNAME maps that blow apart the myth of mass geographical mobility are the lure of the latest family history website to be swamped by huge demand.

The Surname Profiler website was set up only five days ago but has received more than three million hits from people keen to trace their roots. Its findings put paid to the belief that recent population movement around Britain has left a jumble of surnames with no discernible regional patterns.

Users can look at maps that compare the distribution of more than 25,000 surnames in the 1881 Census with that of the 1998 electoral register.

They throw up startlingly similar pictures for many names and indicate that relatively few people move far from their birthplace. But a part of the website that will prove most interesting for social climbers allows people to check the relative status of their surname.

Researchers said that the site began as a tool for academics and companies but had been overwhelmed by demand from amateur genealogists. This comes after the huge popularity of the 1901 Census website, which collapsed under the weight of millions of hits days after it became available in 2001.

The study was led by professors from University College London who spent a year wading through 46 million surname records. They then used postcodes to locate the ratio of particular surnames in affluent or impoverished areas, and to trace patterns of emigration to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Even Jeremy Paxman may crack a smile on discovering that only 1 per cent of people have a more high-status surname than his.

But the surname of Patricia Routledge, who plays the ultimate snob Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC programme Keeping Up Appearances, is in the bottom third of the status league, and that of Vicky Pollard, the schoolgirl chav from Little Britain, is in the top third.

The maps confirm the Scottish heritage of many politicians. Despite Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Sir Menzies Campbell and Ken Livingstone now being based in London, most of their kin have stayed north of the Border.

David Beckham has made his home in Spain but most Beckhams lived in Norfolk in 1881, and even today East Anglia has one of the highest densities of that surname.

Professor Paul Longley said that the study would help people to trace their family history, but also hoped to increase understanding of cultural identity and patterns of population movement.

“To a large extent social mobility is a myth,” he said. “For most people migration is traumatic.”

The research found that, traditionally, London had a high proportion of immigrants from Scotland, Norfolk, the North West and South West, but few from the Midlands or North East. Yorkshire people were also much less inclined to leave the area, showing a low incidence of emigration to America and Australia.

Professor Richard Webber said: “These maps show there is not as much mobility as people think, and most movement is of the middle classes. People who don’t go to university are much less likely to move far away.”

The researchers found that Smith, Jones, Williams and Brown retained their positions as the most common surnames in 1881 and 1998. Patel is now 40th, with the highest number in Harrow, northwest London.

The website address is: www.surnameprofiler.org

WHERE TO SEARCH

Other genealogy sites

• www.genesreunited.co.uk
• www.1901censusonline.com
• www.british-genealogy.com
• www.1837online.com
• www.familysearch.org
• www.ancestry.co.uk

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