Are all the names listed on one-name websites necessarily interconnected?

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Everyone,
Have recently been trying to trace back the CROW family of  London , but who appear to originate earlier from the Lincoln area.  Running through some of the male members is the forename DOCKERY, as in Roland Dockery CROW, b.1891, and his grandfather George Dockery CROW, b. 1830.
It appears that George Dockery CROW's mother was a Susannah KNOWLES, baptised 04-01-1801 at St Mary Le Wigford Lincoln, parents Peregrine KNOWLES and Mary (nee JACKSON).
What is slightly bizarre is that at least from 1808 onwards Peregrine begins to call himself Peregrine Knowles DOCKERY and with Mary he produces at least 3 other daughters up to 1812.  He dies in 1825, and his widow Mary lives to the ripe old age of 94, calling herself Mary DOCKERY in the Censuses where she subsequently appears.
Now, I happened to look on the DOCWRA family website on the internet, which boasts some pretty impressive early ancestors, and was surprised to see those three 1808-1812 baptisms listed there, with the parents' names given as Peregrine Knowles DOCKERA and Mary JACKSON.
Would this mean that the curiously-named Peregrine was definitely a member of the DOCWRA clan, or has someone simply added him to the DOCWRA melting pot?
This DOCKERY name that flits in and out of the CROW family is particularly strange, in that Peregrine was simply referring to himself as Peregrine KNOWLES, baptised with that name 15-04-1773 at St Mark's Lincoln.  So where does DOCKERY suddenly magically materialise from, and what have the DOCWRA family got to do with it?
I'm puzzled, I expect any unsuspecting Rootschatter who reads this must be totally confused, too...
Very best wishes,
keith

[Spidermonkey]

Hi Keith, I think that answer very much depends upon who is collating the names!  That said, the majority of one name studies I have come across are a collection of all examples of that one name, perhaps gathered after trawling through census returns. 

Not sure that helps you work out whether your Peregrine fits in anywhere, sorry!

[Keith Sherwood]

Spidermonkey,
Thanks very much for those comments...I've tried e-mailing an address on that DOCWRA website, but as the last update seemed to suggest 2004, I'm not too hopeful of eliciting a response,
keith

[Lady Di]

Hi Keith,

Sorry, can't help with your Peregrine but most one-name studies are just a collection of people with almost the same surname somewhere in history. In theory, they have a common ancestor but I doubt it has ever been proven.

A couple of my early lot were the Docwra family members and I've found that all their records (on the website you mention), as great and detailed as they are, don't all inter-connect to create one big happy family. Maybe they did if you go back far enough to people like Adam (Docwra) and Eve (Docwra)   

Your Dockery name is thought to be just another version of Docwra but of course may have no connection whatsoever.
The name may even have been associated with men working on the Docks at one time.

Is it possible that your Peregrine actually changed his name in order to inherit an entailed estate - or on the other side of the coin - did he find out that his parents weren't actually married so used the Dockery name to honour one of his mother's parents (assuming that's where the name came from    ) ?

Did he change his name at the time of a grandparent's death? Did a Dockery grandfather die and leave him something so he added the extra surname?

Sorry - all questions and no answers 


Di

[behindthefrogs]

My own Edlin one name study which I have not published on a website consists of six major families which so far are not connected, although I anticipate that this could be reduced to three.

I also have about thirty small family groups, each of about three generations which are unconnected and a file of a few hundred unconnected people.

Incidently I have not trawled the census, bmd or any of the other major sources to collect these names although I do use these sources to try to establish connections.

David

[Springbok]

Hi Keith,

many family names are unlikely to be even remotely connected.

Take any name associated with a occupation back in the dim and distant .
 Miller, Baker ,Fuller,Tanner ,Fletcher were all  village professions  and could well have started out as John the miller to distinguish him from John the Archer, in one ville, only in the next hamlet , John the Archers cousin was known as Peter , Michels'son.
In Latter years when a particular name had been used for a couple of generations ,and had sometimes altered its spelling  then yes ,maybe it is possible to find a mutual ancestor.

With those provisos, then One Name Studies are valid to perhaps the 13th Century and further back if a name is connected to well documented family

Spring

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Lady Di,
There need to be lots of questions posed to solve this particular puzzle, so I appreciate you firing away with them!  I just wonder too who saw fit to add those three baptisms to the DOCWRA website collection...
And thanks very much for those interesting and relevant comments on one-name sites, Springbok and David,
regards, keith

[johnfw]

I have included a link to a one name study which seems to be a very good example of a published product.

In another instance 'one name study listings' have put me onto a collector of names for my family name, in such a case I need contact the custodian of this study to make enquiries as required. It all helps in the end.

John

http://www.piggin.org/index.htm

[Ron Lankshear]

My study of LANKSHEAR often spelt  LANKSHIRE and similar and I have included LANKESHEER is not listed at
http://www.one-name.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi?find=D but DOCWRA and similar variations is.
Why not contact those people.

I try to list all uses of LANKSHEAR etc that I find including use as a middle name - which includes CLARE similar to the quoted Piggin site.
There are not many LANKSHEAR and in essence we all link back to a marriage in 1713 but a few people I have not connected as yet but perhaps one day.
LANKSHEAR appears to be a spelling from a Oxfordshire dialect way of pronouncing Lancashire as LANKESHEER is from Somerset.

Now surnames  do not have such a narrow origin - people do one name studies but could not link all the people as their common ancestor is more anthropology than genealogy.