Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Mapping Surnames of Immigrants

The FamilySearch blog on Genealogy Resources has a post about using the surname of your immigrant through the use of surname distribution maps to discover where they may have originated.

The blog says that “These maps graphically display locations where surnames occurred at different periods in time. This strategy provides genealogists with a starting point for research in the birth country, when that information cannot be discovered through sources recorded in the new country of settlement. It works particularly well for less-common surnames and among families that have stayed in the same European locations for centuries”. 

They have a list of countries, with links to maps, including Canada, and a world-wide map. So give it a try. 

Did it work for you?