Provides amateur genealogists with the skills to research the distribution and history of a surname. 100 sample names are mapped from the Doomsday book to the present, and for those whose name is not featured the author provides instructions for mapping the distribution and origin of a name.

Part 1 The modern distribution of surnames: sources of information; counting phone book entries; presentation of data; subjects for investigation; surnames and migration; some guidelines on the interpretation of surname maps; surname variations; country and county surnames; where experts disagree; problems, problems. Part 2 The distribution of surnames since the middle ages: sources of information on migration; problems and how to overcome them; results of the 17th-century scan. Part 3 The distribution of surnames in medieval England: sources of surname distribution in medieval England; problems and pitfalls; some technicalities; the origin and distribution of surname types; toponymics; occupational names in the Yorkshire poll tax of 1379; nicknames; personal names; uninflected personal names; personal names with an added suffix 's'; personal names with an added suffix 'son'. Appendices - list of prefixes and suffixes, published name maps, source of names prior to 1700, list of names studied for background.

From the author of The Family Tree Detective, this guide provides the amateur genealogist or family historian with the skills to research the distribution and history of a surname. Colin Rogers uses a sample of 100 names, many of them common, to follow the migration of people through the centuries. Each of the 100 names is mapped since the Doomsday book in 1086. For those whose name is not among the sample, the book shows how to find out where namesakes live now, how they moved around the country through time, and how the name originated from a placename, a nickname or an occupation. Colin Rogers finishes this work by showing how the distribution of surnames can be studied irrespective of the size of the surrounding population, and reaches some interesting conclusions about which names are more reliable guides to migration since the 14th century.