Project Databases

The status of data collection of major projects is detailed below. Progress on British records is at an advanced stage with 80% of all parish records, census returns and civil registrations now completed. A relatively modest amount of work has been undertaken for America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—principally on census and immigration records. 

England

Although rich in historical records their condition is often not ideal or particularly well suited to a surname study. Many are not easily accessible or in a format which favours digital acquisition and owing to the large numbers of Fishers this presents serious difficulties in capturing some of the larger or un-indexed sources.

The study is close to completing the abstraction of references from tax records which pre-date parish registers: the Rotuli Hundredorum 1273-79, the Lay Subsidy Taxes of 1297 to 1334, and the Poll Taxes of 1377-81. This data will be used to map the earliest references to the surname and provide a starting point for the geographical framework for the DNA survey.

We must exercise caution when interpreting statistics based on medieval sources, which are invariably incomplete. The medieval records are necessarily inaccessible to the general public and require experts to translate. Here again transcription is incomplete and for some counties the records have either never existed (Cheshire and Durham were exempt from the Lay Subsidy and Poll Taxes) or simply do not survive.

In addition to numerous minor abstraction projects we are currently compiling the civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths of England, Scotland and Wales (1837-2001) into a database which is estimated to include over 300,000 events when complete.

The processes described for England are generally similar for all countries from the 19th century. The former colonies of the British Empire also have substantial immigration records—which would be the starting point for the study, broadening out in to civil registration and census returns.

Here is a brief overview of each country:

• Scotland: Parish registers generally survive from the 17th century in the Lowland counties and from the 18th century elsewhere. Civil registration and census records start in the mid 19th century.

• Wales: The sources for Welsh research from the 16th century correspond closely to England except that early parish registers have generally not survived as well.

• Ireland : Research is severely handicapped by the incineration of vital records - alternative sources are being investigated.

• USA: The USA benefits from a particularly impressive range of accessible census and immigration records but vital records are generally disperately sourced.

• Canada: Immigration lists from the 18th century. Civil registration and census returns start in the mid 19th century.

• Australia: Parish records from 1788 (New South Wales) and generally around 1830 in other states. Immigration records exist from the 1820’s and civil registration started in the 1840’s.

• New Zealand: Passenger lists from 1839 and civil registration 1848. Pre-1966 census records do not survive.

• South Africa, Caribbean and South America: No information on sources or data available.

Contact: fisher@one-name.org