From: "Carolyn" <cazdebona@ozemail.com.au> > Hi Anne, > > The other thing you could do as a starting point, is ask someone for > the concentration of the Hannon surname in one of the census, I'm not > sure what year it is, or quite how it works, I seem to remember Roy > Stockdill talking about it at some stage, it may give you a starting > point of where to look, then again it could be a wild goose chase !! > > Carolyn> The programme I use is a CD called Surname Atlas which analyses all the data in the 1881 census and produces instant distribution maps of where any name was principally located. In the case of HANNON it was overwhelmingly Lancashire and especially found around Liverpool and Manchester. Out of 463 occurrences in the 1881 census, 200 were in Lancashire, the next nearest being Yorkshire West Riding with 51. However, there are many variants of the name, some being more concentrated in certain parts of the country than others. For instance, just changing one letter to the name HANNAN still leaves Lancashire on top with 180 occurrences out of 960, but brings Lanarkshire, Scotland, right up along with Yorkshire WR, both with 122 references. The name and its numerous variants appears to have multiple origins, all descending from the basic surname HANNA..... 1) English from the medieval female name Hannah or Anna. 2) Scottish from an unidentified place. 3) Irish from the Gaelic O'Hannaigh, descendant of Annach. 4) Jewish from diminutives of Khanin, Khanele and metronymics of Han(e)son, Hanis, Hanin, Chanin, Hankes, Chankin, etc. It seems to be one of those names that can derive from any number of different sources and origins. You makes your choice and you takes your pick! -- Roy Stockdill Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE