What is a One-Name Study
“A one-name study is a project researching all occurrences of a surname, as opposed to a particular pedigree (ancestors of one person) or descendancy (descendants of one person or couple).” This definition is that used by the Guild of One-Name Studies of which I am a member.
Vision
The “vision” for the GRAY/GREY one-name study is that there is a trusted body of knowledge defining the varied origins of the GRAY/GREY name, how the name then spread across the globe, where the names occur now and how it differs from other names.
Critical Success factors (CSF)
In order for the vision to be reached there are a number of elements that must be achieved – these include: working with data that is valid and {to be completed}
Study Goals
The goals that I aim to reach in 2020 are to have:
- Defined the toolset to be utilised for this study.
- Downloaded the 1911 census index from Ancestry for Yorkshire (currently 50,000)
- Downloaded the 1910 census index from Ancestry for the USA (unknown)
- Identified the number of families in Yorkshire in the Ancestry census index for 1841 through 1911. [A family being identified from a GRAY/GREY being a “head of household”]
- Identified the current DNA studies pertaining to the GRAY/GREY name on … {to be defined}
- Received the results from my personal DNA test.
- Published a report on the Gray-ONS website stating progress against the above goals.
Site Structure
The One-Name Study part of the site starts by describing the Aim of the study then looks at the Approach I have taken. The section on Reports describes how the study is progressing and its results. The Name Variants being studied are then listed before the Origins of The Name are discussed.
A look at the Famous GRAYs – both people, places and objects, precedes the body of the site.
The main content of the site follows the “seven pillars” of a One-Name Study: are Data Collection, Analysis, Synthesis, Publicising the Study, Responding to enquiries, Publication of results and Preserving the study – with the final page – a list of Links.
I am very keen to help people who are looking at their GRAY or GREY family histories – a separate page describes how I aim to work Helping Others.