How common is your surname?

Recently while I was searching online for surname information, I came across surname information by David L. Word, Charles D. Coleman, Robert Nunziata and Robert Kominski (2008) entitled "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000" and published by the U.S. Census Bureau. A very well hidden website has posted this information online.

I was able to get a good idea of how common some of the surnames I'm researching are. This gave me an idea of how many of my potential relatives I may be able to find. Interestingly, I noted that the surname Henyard is about 91% African-American and about 3.5% Hispanic. This was relevant because the Henyard oldest know family members were born in Mexico and the majority of the people who carry this surname are African-American.

I thought I'd share this resource with my readers as another tool in researching your family.

Hannah Moore-Thompson Death Certificate

The death certificate of my great-great grandmother, Hannah Moore-Thompson. Her brother, Joshua Moore is the informant. It lists the names of her parents and their birth states. It also gives an alternate first name and maiden name of her mother, who was known as Rose to the family. This is an important detail because Rose married twice, first to George Moore and later to Andrew Owens. Additionally, the maiden name gives a possible link to a slave holding family.

All Charity's Chillun's

Inspired by the Charity Smith descendants family chart, I compiled a list of surnames of her descendants and created a Wordle with them. This is a partial listing in all there are almost 200 surnames. Enjoy!