Distribution & Frequency of the Gomery and Gum(m)ery Surnames in the 1881 Census

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Distribution of GOMERY and GUM(M)ERY in 1881


The Guild of One-Name Studies undertook a project to map the distribution of members registered surnames from the 1881 census, as this census was widely available. The results of this project for the surnames GOMERY and GUM(M)ERY and variant spellings can be seen on the map and tables below.

It should be noted that smaller One-Name Studies, such as this one, do not produce maps as meaningful as larger studies, in which distinct epicentres can be seen with densities decreasing with distance from the epicentres. This can be seen to a certain extent on the map below, with the main epicentre in Herefordshire, tailing off into Worcestershire and Warwickshire to the east, and to a lesser extent Monmouthshire to the south west.

The total number of persons with the surnames GOMERY, GUMERY and GUMMERY alive in England and Wales in 1881 was 213, with 204 in England and 9 in Wales (all in Monmouthshire). There were no occurrences of these surnames in Scotland.

1881 distribution map for the surnames GOMERY/GUM(M)ERY

The numbers on the table below show that Herefordshire has the most frequent occurrence of GOMERY/GUM(M)ERY in 1881 with a frequency of 0.026% which means 2.6 people per 10,000 have these surnames. The next highest concentration occurs in Worcestershire where 1.6 people out of  10,000 are GOMERY/GUM(M)ERYs, followed by Warwickshire with 0.83 for every 10,000 people.

The numbers and percentages table below shows that Warwickshire, the county with the largest number of GOMERY/GUM(M)ERYs at 61, is where 28.6% of people with these surnames lived in 1881. This reflects migration from rural areas to the city of Birmingham for a better chance of employment, with families spreading out from Herefordshire and Worcestershire, the counties with historically large numbers of these surnames.

1881 table of frequencies and densities for the GOMERY/GUM(M)ERY surnames

The total number of GOMERY/GUM(M)ERYs living in England and Wales, as recorded in the 1881 census, was 213. Compare this with the numbers found in England and Wales in September 2002 as calculated by a database formed as a spin-off from a digital history project, and based on figures from the Office of National Statistics -

  1. GOMERY - 152 persons (the 25,427th most common surname in England and Wales)

  2. GUMERY - 86 persons (the 36,388th most common surname in England and Wales)

  3. GUMMERY - 242 persons (the 18,859th most common surname in England and Wales)

           Total - 480 persons

As it says on the website - The database was established in 1998, and births are continually added, but the 1.5 million deaths between 1998 and 2002 have not been weeded from the system. The database is also said to include a level of duplicate entries and misspelt surnames, as well as people currently living abroad and temporary visitors to England and Wales. So the numbers are not entirely accurate, but give a good general indication of the number of people in England and Wales with a particular surname.

If you would like to know more about surname distribution please email me .

References:-
My thanks to Geoff Riggs and the Guild of One-Name Studies for calculating the distribution and frequncies.

With reference to the online database at http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/
URL=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gomery/1881.html
Last revised: 3 September 2006
© Linda Hansen 2004 - 2006