I have been working on my genealogy for fifty years, and seriously since retirement in 2009. To date I have entered over 14,000 names (and always adding) into Family Tree Maker, my computer data base. I cast a wide net when attaching people to my tree--direct ancestors, very distant cousins, in-laws, stepfamilies. There are some branches which I have worked on in much greater depth than others. I enjoy researching the unique stories. The research never ends.
While I have loosely traced some family roots back to medieval times, I know I need to firm up these sources and links. I am, however, more confident that I can better document the relatives from 1600 on so these are the stats I used for my analyses.
I fed all my the data into my friend, ChatGPT, then posed many, many questions. (I must admit that I am not going to challenge Chat's numbers and am trusting the accuracy of Chat's counting.)
As well, I have separated the data into our four family branches---my paternal Homuth and maternal Suomela lines and Steve's paternal Whelan and maternal Walsh lines.
Size of the Two Family Networks
These charts and stats show the most common surnames in my Homuth and Whelan research.
|
|
|---|
| Homuth branch | 7,723 |
| Whelan branch | 1,706 |
Homuth Family Network
Population
| Category | Count |
|---|
| Total people | 7,723 |
| Male | 4,073 |
| Female | 3,578 |
| Unknown | 72 |
Most Common Surnames
| Surname | Count |
|---|
| NETTERFIELD | 156 |
| HARPER | 132 |
| FARNHAM | 124 |
| HOWE | 83 |
| HICKS | 79 |
| FARNUM | 74 |
| BLAZO | 60 |
| COOK | 59 |
| PEARSON | 53 |
| HOMUTH | 50 |
This side of the tree is remarkably diverse and contains many of the large research projects that I have worked on over the years. There are many branches to research.
-
Netterfield
-
Farnham/Farnum
-
Homuth
-
Harper
-
Pearson
-
Finnish lines
-
English and New England colonial families
The tree also reaches much further back historically, explaining why so many medieval and early-modern English surnames appear.
Whelan Family Network
Population
| Category | Count |
|---|
| Total people | 1,706 |
| Male | 882 |
| Female | 813 |
| Unknown | 11
|
Most Common Surnames
| Surname | Count |
|---|
| SULLIVAN | 132 |
| WHELAN | 98 |
| O'GORMAN | 67 |
| CANTLON | 56 |
| MORAN | 53 |
| O'SHAUGHNESSY | 43 |
| SHEA | 41 |
| WALSH | 27 |
| O'DONNELL | 25 |
| SHIELDS | 18 |
This network is unmistakably Irish.
The dominant surnames I have researched extensively:
Whelan
Sullivan
O'Gorman
Moran
O'Shaughnessy
Shea
Walsh
Cantlon
From where did our immigrant families come?
| Branch Primary Origin | Secondary Origin | Third Origin |
|---|
| Homuth | England | United States | Germany |
| Suomela | Finland | Canada | United States |
| Whelan | Ireland | Canada | England |
| Walsh | Ireland | Canada | England |
International Immigrants
People with both birth and death countries recorded.
| Branch | Same country | Born one country, died another | % Immigrants |
|---|
| Homuth | 2,460 | 489 | 16.6% |
| Suomela | 60 | 5 | 7.7% |
| Whelan | 119 | 65 | 35.3% |
| Walsh | 274 | 69 | 20.1% |
International immigrant rate by branch
Percentage born in one country and dying in another, among people with both countries recorded.
Immigration Destinations
Where the immigrants died.
| Destination | Homuth | Suomela | Whelan | Walsh |
|---|
| Canada | 97 | 4 | 40 | 32 |
| United States | 293 | 1 | 25 | 34 |
| England | 53 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Australia | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 34 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
How Mobile Were Our Families?
| Mobility Type | Homuth | Suomela | Whelan | Walsh |
|---|
| Recorded in only 1 country | 4,308 | 173 | 408 | 495 |
| Born one country, died another | 489 | 5 | 65 | 69 |
| Recorded in 2 countries | 679 | 4 | 84 | 102 |
| Recorded in 3+ countries | 42 | 5 | 4 | 7
|
Summary
Very interesting! I was unaware of some of the surnames in the Whelan side,
ReplyDeleteYou have really worked hard on your research. Never would have guessed the results. Thank you for sharing.
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