Surname mapping

rene oliver · Senior Member

RE: Surname mapping

Barb Silvester · Senior Member

Congratulations Rene on your 49th wedding anniversary. That's quite a milestone.

A few weeks ago I sent you a message through peronal messages. Were you able to access it? If not, I'll either try again or contact you through email.

Barb

Linda · Senior Member

Congratulations Rene. Hope you are not thinking of going astray after all those years.

Linda

rene oliver · Senior Member

Hi there,

It was my 49th wedding ann. on Thursday - so thoughts like that are completely OUT.
I`ll think about it again this afternoon!!!

jane · Senior Member

What we could do with is some DNA samples from some famous male Olivers, so that we can compare it with DNA from some Oxfordshire Olivers. Rene and I will have to fight over who's going to ask Neil Oliver for his!

Linda · Senior Member

I wonder if Neil is one of our clan. It would be an interesting project to see if we are related to any of the 'famous' Olivers. I think Jamie Oliver's ancestors came from Cornwall. There's Tom Oliver who used to be in Neighbours, I think we was born in the UK.

My Gran used to say that Lawrence Olivier was really an Oliver but changed the spelling to be 'posh' !!! Oh dear.

Bye for now - Linda

rene oliver · Senior Member

Hi all,

I certainly would not mind Neil Oliver (TV) being related to me. Aaaah.

Whether he came from North, South, East or West!!!

Spring is in the air.

Irene

Linda · Senior Member

Interesting that the extreme south west and the north east have the highest population of Olivers in 1881. Could there be any historical significance for these two strongholds being at opposite ends of the country? I'm thinking that the north east is associated with Hadrian's wall and the Romans and similarly the south east being open to invaders from the continent. Or perhaps rather than coming into the country they were trying to get out!!

Depending on who you speak to or what references you use the origin of the name Oliver seems to vary from the obvious relating to Olives to an obscure one using a different spelling which relates to being connected to or a servant to the King.

Bye for now - Linda

jane · Senior Member

Here's a fun site to play with: Great Britain Family Names.

Type in a surname, choose 1881 or 1998, and see maps of the distribution of the name, with dark blue showing the highest concentration of a name. The areas shown are Royal Mail postcode areas.

Oxfordshire is in fact not one of the Oliver strongholds: it is in the north-east (where my own Olivers came from!) and Cornwall that are dark blue on the 1881 map.

By 1881 some surnames had escaped from their original homes. I am doing a one-name study on the very rare name NEWRICK. In 1881 there were two hotspots, one in Norfolk/Suffolk and one in the north-east. The original home of the name was in the Yarmouth area, and just one couple (my ancestors) moved to Sunderland about 200 years ago. They and their many descendants are responsible for that north-eastern hotspot in 1881.