Hi Mike One of the problems with the surname atlas is that it only picks up incidences of a hundred or more so can paint a distorted picture Whilst more than half of the UTTINGs in England are in Norfolk in 1881, there are at least some in every County I checked in 1881 A useful tool but not infallible By 1998 there were more of everyone in the Country Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > In the 1881 census the surname Utting seems to be a Norfolk phenomenon - > by 1998 quite wide spread across England. See > http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/ > > MN

Nivard, Well said. I'm not looking for a fight - I don't have the height, weight or reach. Of course, extracts of the record will often chart the method of extraction and not much else. But is it not significant that in 1881 fully 50% of enumerated Uttings were in East Anglia? The LDS and TNA seems to suggest the same geographical emphasis. What actual numbers are we looking at? Where did the other 50% say they were born? The usefulness of what indeed is a simplistic approach, is that it sets up a hypothesis that can be tested. In the case of my own surname I have found that, working back through the available record, that the references grow fewer as time regresses and converge on C15th Wellesbourne, where I have found (so far) just one reference to a Nason family. Until further evidence is found, it seems reasonable to say that the Nason surname probably originates there. I'd welcome your comment on another aspect of genealogical 'probability'. Given that C15th England had a population of perhaps a tenth of that today, is it not more likely that two Smiths were related then, than it would be today? And in 1881? To paraphrase, 'Let speculation thrive!' Mike Nason Nivard Ovington wrote: > Hi Mike > > One of the problems with the surname atlas is that it only picks up > incidences of a hundred or more so can paint a distorted picture > > Whilst more than half of the UTTINGs in England are in Norfolk in 1881, > there are at least some in every County I checked in 1881 > > A useful tool but not infallible > > By 1998 there were more of everyone in the Country > > Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > > > >