Guild of One-Name Studies

The Guild of One-Name Studies is a UK-based charitable organisation founded in 1979 for one-name studies.

History

The Guild was established at an inaugural meeting in September 1979 in Leicester, England. The decision to call it a guild was partly inspired by the notion that medieval guilds had encouraged professionalism along with mutual aid, as well as by a whimsical desire to create the acronym GOONS, evoking a popular British radio humour show and making a self-mocking comment on the quixotic nature of one-name studies. From time to time there are efforts to discourage use of this deprecating acronym, but it is in widespread use in the genealogical world and difficult to suppress.

As a small organisation, the Guild has no employed staff. The fact that its members conduct some of the world's most ambitious and sustained family history projects with international scope has brought it special standing in the genealogy world. Its development has been mostly harmonious, with only occasional friction over policy or spending. It has cooperated closely with the Halsted Trust, created by legacy, which promotes one-name studies.

While one-name studies have mainly been popular in Britain, thanks to that country’s unified and open vital records, the Guild has always officially insisted that every study it recognises should be worldwide in scope, and has sought to cater to non-British studies in its basic methodological advice.

One-name studies

A one-name study is a project researching all occurrences of a surname, as opposed to a particular pedigree (ancestors of one person) or descendancy (descendants of one person or couple). Some "one-namers" may restrict their research geographically, perhaps to one country, but true one-namers collect all occurrences world-wide. The Guild only accepts true one-name studies for registration, although anyone with an interest in one-name studies is welcome to become a member.

Typically, the researchers will also study the etymology of the surname, and its geographical distribution. Sometimes, especially if the surname is also a place name, they will try to identify the place or places of origin of the surname, employing the normal methods of genealogy.

Activities

The principal meeting places of the Guild are its on-line mailing list, the [http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Genealogical_Societies/GOONS.html Guild Forum] , and its Seminars and Annual Conferences, which are mostly held in England. As an organisation, its principal role has been to debate and distribute advice on methods for one-name studies. Members have collated a wiki of such advice, but this is not yet publicly available.

To meet the concern of members that one-name compilations are often lost to posterity when researchers die and their papers are destroyed, the "Guild Archive", an electronic repository for members' one-name records, has been created and guidelines laid down on bequests of digital data to the Guild.

The "Guild Marriage Index", a facility to help members find the names of marriage partners and identify from index numbers where post-1837 marriages took place in England and Wales, is likely to become the Guild’s main contribution to the wider field of family history.

Publications

The Guild’s initial periodical was the "Guild of One-Name Studies Newsletter", published quarterly for eight issues from January 1980 to October 1981 on corner-stapled, typescript foolscap sheets under editor Frank Higenbottam. [Palgrave, Derek, 'Before the Journal — Looking back to the Guild’s early days and its first Newsletter', "Journal of One-Name Studies", October-December 2006.]

This was followed by the "Journal of One-Name Studies", with binding, also quarterly, from 1982 to the present. Its current editor (2007) is Roy Stockdill.

The "Register of One-Name Studies" published annually, lists all one-name studies currently registered by Guild members. The Guild also publishes booklets of advice such as "Organising a One-Name Gathering".

Membership

At its foundation, the Guild had about 200 members. At present (2007), it has slightly more than 2,000, whose names are presented in a Register published both on-line and on paper. The Register shows that slightly more than 2,000 studies are being conducted involving a total of about 7,500 surname forms. A considerable number of early members have retired or died, and their studies, additional to this number, have therefore ceased.

Some 20 per cent of the membership present their findings through a website. Guild members can also publicise their studies through a [http://www.one-name.org/services.html#profiles Guild Profile] created on the Guild’s website. As an indicator of digitised methods, 80 per cent of the members have an e-mail address registered with the Guild. [ [http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GOONS/2006-10 Millington, Paul, 'Some Guild Stats', Rootsweb Archive 2006-10-02] .]

The addresses of members show the bulk to be living in Britain, but with significant numbers in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

External links

* [http://www.one-name.org/ Guild of One-Name Studies]

References