Guild of One Name Studies SMALLSHAW Project

A few of years ago, Ron Smallshaw, a member of GOONS suggested that an idea of the relative rarity of a surname could be a generated by:
  1. counting the number of births in the year 1870
  2. counting the number of births in the year 1970
  3. taking the average of the above two figures
  4. noting which county contained the largest number of births
The Smallshaw Number, as it became known consisted of the average calculated in the third bullet and the County.

As a result of this proposal, I wrote to Ron a few times and spoke to him on the phone a lot more. One day we arranged to meet, as he lived not far off my journey home, we spent a very pleasant couple of hours discussing research techniques and successes. Even though I had been a GOONS member for nearly 13 years, Ron was the first member that I had meet.

Sadly Ron died recently and I have volunteered to carry on his project in memory of him.

The data that I have received from other members is in the table below, EMail me with your data if you have complete birth information for both those years, or if your data below is incorrect:
 
 One Name  Number
 County
Member Num
 CHELMWICK
0
  
2719
 DOWDEN
23
London Middlesex
 2239C
 DOWDING
32
 London Middlesex
 2239C
 ESSERY
12.5
 Devon
 881
 ES(S)WORTHY
1
Devon/London
881
 GLIBBERY
2.5
 London
 1101
 HEMINGWAY
66
 West Yorkshire
 2806
 HEMMINGWAY
8
 West Yorkshire
 2806
HILDER
16.5
Sussex
729
 MEDLAM
2
 Yorkshire/Staffordshire
 2311
 MIDLAM
1.5
 Staffordshire
 2311
 MIDDLEHAM
1.5
 Lancashire
 2311
 ROWBERRY
15
 Worcestershire
 278
 RUBERY
9
 Worcestershire
 278
 WICKWAR(D)
3
Leicestershire
2905

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