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~ Families & People ~
Family and Forenames from the Lower Gornal Parish in 1891
The following facts have been compiled from the 1891 Census which recorded every
living soul in the Parish, some 6500 individuals including children and infants.
This list indicates the family names that populated the district with the number of individuals of that name:-
As you can see the surnames Marsh and Jones were everywhere at this time!
Hickman, Bradley and Hale also. Beadsmore/Beardsmore and Greenway/Greenaway which appear to have alternative spellings. Of course, some of these families may not have been related directly or may have no connection at all.
There were many favoured forenames, among both male and female,
below is a small list of the most frequent, during this period
names were quite conventional and traditional,
a great deal obviously had biblical connections, there were very
few 'fashionable' names.
Joseph, Joshua, Isaac, Mary were typical, a bit less frequent like Hezekiah, Noah and Ruth, and some really unusual.
Many forenames were preserved though families or immediate relatives,
this coupled with so many common family names, this can make serching for an
individual challenging if looking for "William Jones" or "Mary Hickman".
This list compiled from the 1891 Census of the Lower Gornal Parish,
reveals the most popular forenames with the number of individuals who
were so named:-
Female:-
As this list shows, "Mary" and "Sarah" were the most popular female choices, and
those numbers includes varients like "Mary Ann", "Sarah Jane", the variations
of 'Elizabeth' like "Lizzy" and "Eliza" and "Ann" like "Anne" and "Annie".
Other very popular female names were Louisa, Esther, Florence, Maude, Matilda, Rebecca, Leah, Fanny, Harriett and Lydia. Unusual were Pathena, Sylvanus, Tryphenia and Happy. Male:-
John, William and Joseph were way ahead in popularity as first name choices.
Other popular male names were Alfred, Charles, Enoch, Richard and in smaller numbers
Emmanuel, Eli, Reuben, Josiah - many from the Old Testement like Moses and Noah.
It was and still is usual for John to be
called 'Jack', William, 'Bill' and Joseph, 'Joe', as it is elsewhere.
In 1891, the male population of Lower Gornal were predominately
engaged in mining, mainly for coal, bricklaying and a small number
of other trades.
Womenfolk, those that worked - mostly the single women
were working in the brickyards or at home as a tailoress, dressmaker
or domestic, and much less engaged in the nail trade which had
dominated the earlier part of the 19th Century.
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