PARRY One-Name Study

Census Distributions - Preliminary information from British censuses 1851-1901

Examining how a surname is distributed is an important aspect of a one-name study. As well as such distributions being interesting in themselves, and adding to the overall information about the surname, studying distributions across a period of time can reveal patterns of migration, and areas of concentration of the name can suggest its possible origin. Both of these factors can also aid the researcher in seeking their ancestors, by indicating the most likely places to find relevant records.

On this page are some preliminary results from the census distributions across the years 1851-1901. The data will be subject to some adjustments, as explained below. More detailed work on each individual census will also appear on separate pages (eventually!) and will enrich the work here concerning the changes over time. If you have any comments about the information on these pages, then please contact me.

On this page:

The Maps
Important Points To Note Concerning The Data
Drawing Conclusions
Statistics

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The Maps

1851	1861	1871

1881	1891	1901

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Important Points To Note Concerning The Data

The information presented here is derived from the Ancestry databases, and plotted using the program Genmap. There are several points to note as a result:

Initial accuracy of the data
- Only people transcribed with the exact surname of PARRY are currently included. Those for whom alternative names are listed in the Ancestry database have been omitted, as have those with double-barrelled names which include Parry as one element, despite both of these categories being found when carrying out an "exact" search for the name in the database. In the first case, this is because I have not yet checked the original source to identify what the name appears as in that, in order to establish the "correct" surname. In the second, it is because I have not yet identified which families could justifiably still be surnamed "Parry" and which might normally have lost the surname through marriage. It is also likely that some entries, which in other records appear as double barrelled names, are here included as Parrys, because of the way in which they have been indexed.
- No effort has yet been made to identify Parrys who have been mistranscribed, but I am aware of some appearing under names such as PARREY, TARRY, etc. As these are identified the figures will be adjusted.
- Totals for each county have been calculated based on the allocation to counties as at the time of my extraction. However, I am aware of situations where the original allocation to counties was incorrect and later adjusted. Any adjustments subsequent to my extraction will not have been taken into consideration for the totals here. At some stage in the future I hope to reproduce the maps using the details from the census parishes, which should result in more accurate county figures but, at present, too many of the parishes are not recognised by the mapping software to make this feasible.
- It should also be noted that parts of certain censuses (especially the 1861 for Wales) have not survived and there are therefore no records of the individuals in these areas. This will have affected the totals.
Procedural issues and consequent accuracy

County boundaries have changed over time, which creates some problems for the comparison of statistics across the years. The most obvious area of difficulty is that of London. As can be seen from the statistical table, London does not appear as a separate county in the figures for the 1851 and 1861 censuses. When it appears in 1871, there is a sizeable reduction in the number of Parrys shown as in Middlesex, the county that a large proportion of the area allocated to London came from. A smaller reduction in number occurs in Surrey, whilst the third county that contributed to London, Kent, actually shows an increase between 1861 and 1871. This can possibly be accounted for by the lower number of Parrys in Kent initially, which would be more affected by migration into the area as well as by a general increase in the Parry population. There are at least two methods whereby this particular problem with regard to London could be "corrected". Either the numbers of people appearing within the "metropolitan" areas of the three counties in the earlier censuses could be extracted and combined as one figure, which would provide a reasonably consistent geographical basis for comparison to the later administrative county of London. Alternatively, those parishes that were originally in one of the three counties could be subtracted from the later London figures, and re-allocated back to the counties. Again this would create similar geographical areas to use as the basis for comparisons across the censuses. This second option is effectively what will happen when using parish level data in Genmap to plot the maps and produce the county totals, since the same parish will always be allocated to the same county across the years.
The problem of the changes to the county boundaries also affects the distributions currently portrayed by the maps since the mapping software used is based on boundaries as at 1881. Again the most obvious problem is caused by the definition of "London". Although London appears on Ancestry from 1871 onwards, the administrative county of London was not actually created until 1889. The "London" used by the mapping software is predominantly just the City of London. Therefore, a substantial number of people who should appear within the three counties of Middlesex, Kent and Surrey are all shown within the City (an area too small to be visible on the maps on this page). This will automatically be corrected once parish level detail is used for the maps but currently results in the population of Parrys in those counties appearing to be lower than it should be in the maps.
Other mapping problems arise with regard to the Isle of Wight, and to Yorkshire. The Isle of Wight is included as Hampshire on the Ancestry database but any Parrys there need to be separated out from those in the rest of Hampshire in order to be shown on the map, since the program treats it separately. This has currently not been done and the Isle of Wight is therefore shown as having no entries. With regard to Yorkshire, the program treats the three Ridings as separate areas, along with the city of York itself shown separately as a fourth area. In order to deal relatively easily with this, I divided the total for Yorkshire by three and allocated the result to each Riding. In view of its size, York itself was ignored. Again, mapping using the parish information will solve this problem and produce a more accurate picture.
Some categories used by Ancestry, such as the Miscellaneous, Ships at Sea, and the Royal Navy, only appear in certain censuses. One assumes that, within the other censuses, those individuals are included elsewhere, under relevant county totals. Further investigation is required of these items in order to ensure that they are allocated correctly.

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Drawing conclusions

As indicated above, there are currently several issues to be resolved, both with regard to the statistics and to the maps, and these affect the accuracy of the picture presented here. However, there are also other points to consider when drawing conclusions from this type of information. For example, the maps and statistics on this page currently show the actual numbers of Parrys. Although these are useful in providing a picture of the distribution of the surname, it is to be expected that there will be more occurrences of the surname in the more highly populated areas. One cannot therefore tell whether the concentrations of Parrys are "real" concentrations or just the number that would be expected in a particularly populated area.

A similar difficulty arises when considering the series over time. Although this gives some indication of population movement, it is difficult to carry out meaningful comparisons between the distributions using the actual figures because any changes in the totals could be as a result of at least two processes - general population change (i.e. birth and death rates etc) and migration. Some form of standardisation of the totals is necessary in order to be able to separate out the effects of these different processes. A start has been made on this by calculating the percentage of Parrys in each county across the censuses. This makes it possible to see which counties have gained, or lost, in the proportion of Parrys living there over the census period, an indication of whether migration was taking place.

However, in order to examine whether the concentrations of Parrys that occur in certain places are significant in any way, or whether any movement was more or less than might be expected, comparison with the rest of the population is required. Once the initial accuracy level and the geographical mapping problems have been more adequately dealt with, then such comparisons will be carried out. But in the meantime, the preliminary observations should be viewed with some caution.

Preliminary observations

Based on national population figures, one would expect an increase in the number of Parrys over the years. Whilst the general trend is upwards, there are anomalies, especially between the 1881 and 1891 totals which turn out to be identical! This requires further investigation - it could be the result of a large number of errors in transcription, although the most common alternatives do not appear to show any compensatory difference. The number of lost entries from the 1861 records could explain the lack of a sizeable increase between 1851 and 1861.
The distributions are similar to others produced for the name (e.g. the modern distribution on this site, and the work by the Rowlands). There is a concentration across the north of Wales and also across the South Wales border with England, with other counties in Wales showing lower numbers. The area around London also shows a higher level.
Across the time series, there is a gradual spread from Wales across the north of England particularly, but also through the other English counties. The other noticeable feature is the movement into Glamorganshire, with the subsequent reduction in numbers in the surrounding counties of Breconshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

It is interesting to note that the trends indicated above appear to have continued up to the modern day. Although the distributions cannot be directly compared, (because of the differing methods of production and the type of information shown), the modern distribution on this site shows that the proportions of Parrys in Herefordshire and Breconshire in 2001 were virtually half what they were in 1901. The proportion of the Parrys in all of the Welsh Counties had decreased since 1901, whereas the proportion in the majority of English counties had increased.

It will be interesting to compare these Parry totals with the national figures, both to find the real areas of concentration, and to see if the migration pattern was typical. In the modern distribution, adjusting for the national population revealed different areas of concentration and I suspect that the same will occur with the census information.

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Statistics

	Actual numbers						Co.	County rankings within England & Wales						Co.	PARRYs in county as a % of all PARRYs in England & Wales
County	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	Co.	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	Co.	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901
Bedfordshire	0	3	5	13	2	7	BDF	51	49	48	46	51	49	BDF	0	0.02	0.03	0.06	0.01	0.03
Berkshire	8	6	4	26	9	43	BRK	44	45	49	38	49	36	BRK	0.05	0.04	0.02	0.11	0.04	0.17
Buckinghamshire	7	8	14	20	33	27	BKM	47	43	42	42	37	44	BKM	0.04	0.05	0.07	0.09	0.15	0.11
Cambridgeshire	3	3	3	12	10	5	CAM	48	49	50	48	48	50	CAM	0.02	0.02	0.02	0.05	0.04	0.02
Cheshire	624	687	718	899	1024	1134	CHS	8	8	9	9	9	8	CHS	3.84	4.18	3.71	3.96	4.51	4.48
Cornwall	20	22	22	9	6	13	CON	34	33	37	49	50	47	CON	0.12	0.13	0.11	0.04	0.03	0.05
Cumberland	12	4	10	13	27	43	CUL	40	47	45	46	41	36	CUL	0.07	0.02	0.05	0.06	0.12	0.17
Derbyshire	12	18	30	64	96	129	DBY	40	36	35	27	27	27	DBY	0.07	0.11	0.16	0.28	0.42	0.51
Devon	24	20	63	38	60	70	DEV	32	35	28	34	32	35	DEV	0.15	0.12	0.33	0.17	0.26	0.28
Dorset	8	8	14	19	23	31	DOR	44	43	42	43	43	41	DOR	0.05	0.05	0.07	0.08	0.10	0.12
Durham	36	50	129	130	119	205	DUR	30	26	24	24	25	22	DUR	0.22	0.30	0.67	0.57	0.52	0.81
Essex	19	48	90	109	176	276	ESS	36	28	26	25	22	21	ESS	0.12	0.29	0.47	0.48	0.77	1.09
Gloucestershire	291	353	441	502	465	464	GLS	16	15	15	15	13	15	GLS	1.79	2.15	2.28	2.21	2.05	1.83
Hampshire	51	39	52	62	65	97	HAM	27	29	30	28	30	29	HAM	0.31	0.24	0.27	0.27	0.29	0.38
Herefordshire	574	530	508	534	445	427	HEF	9	11	13	12	14	16	HEF	3.54	3.23	2.63	2.35	1.96	1.69
Hertfordshire	17	30	21	18	30	36	HRT	37	31	39	44	39	40	HRT	0.10	0.18	0.11	0.08	0.13	0.14
Huntingdonshire	16	10	3	6	1	0	HUN	38	42	50	52	53	53	HUN	0.10	0.06	0.02	0.03	0.00	0
Kent	109	103	137	131	143	167	KEN	23	24	23	23	24	24	KEN	0.67	0.63	0.71	0.58	0.63	0.66
Lancashire	1526	2153	2491	3373	3593	4173	LAN	4	2	2	1	1	1	LAN	9.40	13.11	12.87	14.85	15.82	16.50
Leicestershire	24	16	19	26	32	76	LEI	32	37	40	38	38	33	LEI	0.15	0.10	0.10	0.11	0.14	0.30
Lincolnshire	31	22	22	32	23	30	LIN	31	33	37	35	43	42	LIN	0.19	0.13	0.11	0.14	0.10	0.12
London			925	1237	1331	1402	LND			6	6	7	5	LND			4.78	5.45	5.86	5.54
Middlesex	656	733	64	91	105	153	MDX	7	6	27	26	26	25	MDX	4.04	4.46	0.33	0.40	0.46	0.61
Norfolk	20	15	17	27	30	22	NFK	34	38	41	37	39	46	NFK	0.12	0.09	0.09	0.12	0.13	0.09
Northamptonshire	2	3	3	15	35	42	NTH	49	49	50	45	36	38	NTH	0.01	0.02	0.02	0.07	0.15	0.17
Northumberland	9	11	35	21	14	78	NBL	43	40	33	41	45	32	NBL	0.06	0.07	0.18	0.09	0.06	0.31
Nottinghamshire	8	14	35	42	63	82	NTT	44	39	33	33	31	31	NTT	0.05	0.09	0.18	0.18	0.28	0.32
Oxfordshire	12	4	6	9	14	11	OXF	40	47	47	49	45	48	OXF	0.07	0.02	0.03	0.04	0.06	0.04
Rutland	2	1	1	3	2	1	RUT	49	52	53	53	52	52	RUT	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.00
Shropshire	506	509	594	628	621	633	SAL	12	12	10	11	10	11	SAL	3.12	3.10	3.07	2.76	2.73	2.50
Somerset	57	51	43	52	69	42	SOM	26	25	32	30	29	38	SOM	0.35	0.31	0.22	0.23	0.30	0.17
Staffordshire	261	349	389	503	578	574	STS	17	16	17	14	11	12	STS	1.61	2.12	2.01	2.21	2.54	2.27
Suffolk	13	11	14	31	24	23	SFK	39	40	42	36	42	45	SFK	0.08	0.07	0.07	0.14	0.11	0.09
Surrey	194	238	144	55	72	119	SRY	18	20	21	29	28	28	SRY	1.20	1.45	0.74	0.24	0.32	0.47
Sussex	41	39	50	52	57	95	SSX	29	29	31	30	33	30	SSX	0.25	0.24	0.26	0.23	0.25	0.38
Warwickshire	150	253	287	452	432	487	WAR	20	19	19	17	15	14	WAR	0.92	1.54	1.48	1.99	1.90	1.93
Westmorland	0	5	9	7	12	4	WES	51	46	46	51	47	51	WES	0	0.03	0.05	0.03	0.05	0.02
Wiltshire	42	30	56	24	49	29	WIL	28	31	29	40	34	43	WIL	0.26	0.18	0.29	0.11	0.22	0.11
Worcestershire	187	274	334	371	267	420	WOR	19	18	18	19	20	18	WOR	1.15	1.67	1.73	1.63	1.18	1.66
Yorkshire	72	160	138	306	393	422	YKS	25	21	22	20	18	17	YKS	0.44	0.97	0.71	1.35	1.73	1.67
Anglesey	1578	1520	1547	1600	1380	1110	AGY	3	3	5	5	6	9	AGY	9.72	9.25	7.99	7.04	6.08	4.39
Breconshire	539	542	547	526	421	345	BRE	10	10	12	13	16	20	BRE	3.32	3.30	2.83	2.32	1.85	1.36
Caernarvonshire	2617	2485	2831	3136	2926	3192	CAE	1	1	1	2	2	2	CAE	16.12	15.13	14.63	13.81	12.88	12.62
Cardiganshire	393	321	397	427	418	366	CGN	15	17	16	18	17	19	CGN	2.42	1.95	2.05	1.88	1.84	1.45
Carmarthenshire	143	136	175	179	207	194	CMN	21	22	20	21	21	23	CMN	0.88	0.83	0.90	0.79	0.91	0.77
Denbighshire	1350	1195	1624	1708	1710	1709	DEN	5	4	4	4	3	4	DEN	8.32	7.27	8.39	7.52	7.53	6.76
Flintshire	1618	1054	1651	1785	1520	1325	FLN	2	5	3	3	4	6	FLN	9.97	6.42	8.53	7.86	6.69	5.24
Glamorgan	513	623	732	1065	1472	2124	GLA	11	9	8	7	5	3	GLA	3.16	3.79	3.78	4.69	6.48	8.40
Merionethshire	480	471	554	722	572	945	MER	13	13	11	10	12	10	MER	2.96	2.87	2.86	3.18	2.52	3.74
Monmouthshire	747	701	768	936	1034	1168	MON	6	7	7	8	8	7	MON	4.60	4.27	3.97	4.12	4.55	4.62
Montgomeryshire	405	376	455	471	302	504	MGY	14	14	14	16	19	13	MGY	2.50	2.29	2.35	2.07	1.33	1.99
Pembrokeshire	130	121	104	155	155	139	PEM	22	23	25	22	23	26	PEM	0.80	0.74	0.54	0.68	0.68	0.55
Radnorshire	73	49	26	44	49	76	RAD	24	27	36	32	34	33	RAD	0.45	0.30	0.13	0.19	0.22	0.30
Totals	16230	16427	19351	22716	22716	25289

	Actual Numbers
Place or category	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901
Alderney	1	0	0	0	0	0
Guernsey	0	0	1	11	7	7
Jersey	1	2	4	0	0	0
Isle of Man	3	0	15	8	7	5
Misc/Ships at Sea or Abroad		17		0
Royal Navy		12	7	5		13

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