Well I got some new software from Santa- Genmap & Surname Atlas. And I've been playing.

The Surname Atlas lets you analyse by surname and forename how names vary by county and district. I've looked  at the Needham's and it's what you'd expect:

 

The counties with the largest numb run NW to SE from Lancs to Lincolnshire.


There are 10 counties with more than 100 Needham's living there, with the top two counties having over 1000 Needham's in residence. The highest number of Needham's in a county occurs in Lancashire which has nearly 12% more Needham's than second placed Yorkshire and over 35% more than Derbyshire, the country where the Needham's originated.

County	County Popn.	Actual No.
Lancashire	3448165	1273
Yorkshire W.Riding	2175852	1123
Derbyshire	456652	802
Lincolnshire	462960	568
Leicestershire	323089	452
Nottinghamshire	393238	367
Middlesex	2861231	323
Cheshire	640667	295
Staffordshire	983336	158
Kent	968915	125

However, if we look at the density of Needham's in a county, Lancashire and Yorkshire drop to 8th and 6th respectively because they have high populations, while smaller Derbyshire rises one place to second. The county with the highest density is Rutland followed by Derbyshire with Leicestershire third.

County	County Popn.	Actual No.	per 100,000
Rutland	21417	60	280
Derbyshire	456652	802	176
Leicestershire	323089	452	140
Lincolnshire	462960	568	123
Nottinghamshire	393238	367	93
Yorkshire W.Riding	2175852	1123	52
Cheshire	640667	295	46
Lancashire	3448165	1273	37
Flintshire	78829	29	37
Yorkshire E.Riding	312344	84	27

  





A similar pattern occurs when the numbers of Needham's in the 1881 census returns are analysed by Districts; ref 4. There are 10 districts with over 100 Needham's.

District Name	Dist. Popn.	Actual No.
Oldham	168495	417
Ecclesall Bierlow	114474	277
Sheffield	183076	242
Chesterfield	98611	233
Bakewell	30552	173
Nottingham	159120	172
Stockport	117161	154
Ashton under Lyne	154572	132
Chorlton	257835	116
Barrow upon Soar	28884	110

Not surprisingly the district distribution follows a similar pattern to that of the counties

The district with the highest incidence of Needham's is Oldham in Lancashire where there are 417. This is 34% higher than second placed Ecclesall Bierlow and 41% higher than third placed Sheffield both of which are in West Yorkshire. All three of these districts are in large industrial towns with populations of over 100k people. So when you look at density of Needham's Bakewell in Derbyshire is top followed by Oakham in Rutland and Chapel en le Frith which like bakewell is in Derbyshire. All three of these districts have fewer than 31k people living in then. Oldham which has the highest number of Needham's drops to 11 when you look at density, Ecclesall Bierlow is 12th and Sheffield is outside the top 20!
 

District Name	Dist. Popn.	Actual No.	per 100,000
Bakewell	30552	173	566
Oakham	10978	59	537
Chapel en le Frith	19490	94	482
Barrow upon Soar	28884	110	381
Thorne	16051	54	336
East Retford	23275	76	327
Gainsborough	29956	90	300
Spilsby	27906	82	294
Loughborough	27900	80	287
Blaby	21878	55	251
Oldham	168495	417	247
Ecclesall Bierlow	114474	277	242
Chesterfield	98611	233	236
Leek	31219	64	205

I'e also looked at the baptism distributions based on those I could find on Ancestry between 1600 & 1630; this is based on the work of Gary Anesty. The earliest comprehensive data available comes from parish registers. But care needs to be taken as not all parishes are on line some of the registers are damaged and difficult to read. None the less some idea of the early distribution of Needhams can be gained by looking at baptism data. The earliest data that is reasonably comprehensive is in the period 1600 to 1630. This is about one generation of Needham's.

If we look at the distribution by county then Derbyshire and Lincolnshire have the highest number of Needham's outside London followed by Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire:
       

Area	No.
London	112
Derby	81
Lincs	62
Herts	39
Notts	34
Leics	23
Cheshire	14
Staffs	11
Shrop	10
Kent	10
Lancs	5
Northamp	5
Yorks	4
Bedford	3
Warwicks	3
Bucks	3
Oxford	2
Norfolk	2
Rutland	1
Total	424

If we look at the parishes where the Needhams were born a familiar picture emerges:

 

The parish with the largest baptisms of Needham's is Hartington which has double the number of the second placed parish, Baslow. These two parishes are adjacent to each other with Hartington being the parish where the Needham's originated at High Needham. Third equal are three parishes in three areas: Worksop in Nottinghamshire, Macclesfield in Cheshire and Magnus the Martyr in London. There are two other parishes which have over 10 baptisms: Humberstone in Leicestershire and Bishopsgate in London.

Parish	Area	Number
Hartington	Derbyshire	31
Baslow	Derbyshire	15
Worksop	Nottinghamshire	13
Macclesfield	Cheshire	13
Magnus the Martyr	London	13
Humberstone	Leicestershire	12
Bishopsgate	London	11

I shall have to keep updatiing this database.

There are over 400 baptisms from 19 regions/counties. Surprisingly there are a large number of spelling variants within this population;

Neadam

Neadham

Neadom

Nedam

Nedame

Nedeham

Nedham

Nedim

Nedom

Nedum

Needam

Needame

Needham

Needeham

Needem

Needom

Needum

Neeham

Neidham

Neodham

Neydam

Nidam

Nideham

Nidham

Nidhame

Nidim

Although Needham is the largest group the surname varies from Neadam to Nidim, with the largest number of variants being in Lincolnshire

Read a very interesting paper on modelling surname populations. Gary Anstey had found that only 15% of males with the surname Anstey alive in 1600 had ancestral lines through to the present because of early death, not being married and chance. No wonder so many of my line peter out. I've looked at the parish records between 1600 and 1630 on Ancestry and found the distribution of Needham's to be quite wide. The Needham's appear in 19 counties with the most populated area being London. I was quite surprised by this as although London was the most populated city by 2 orders of magnitude I hadn't realised how many Needham's lived there. I'll have to  rethink my work plan

Area	No.
London	112
Derby	81
Lincs	62
Herts	39
Notts	34
Leics	23
Cheshire	14
Staffs	11
Shrop	10
Kent	10
Lancs	5
Northamp	5
Yorks	4
Bedford	3
Warwicks	3
Bucks	3
Oxford	2
Norfolk	2
Rutland	1
Total	424

 

Derbyshire baptism, burial & marriage summaries cleaned - at last - and all now on line in the updated form both in date order and alphabetic order. It should now read better and the duplicates have been taken out.
Started summarising the South Yorkshire Parish records to see where to attack next. Wadworth looks high on the list

Updating Hartington summary and Hartington trees as a precursor to updating them on nons. There looks to be a number of Needhams who have lost their wives and remarried. But I haven't found their marriage records! Am I missing something?

There are a number of families living round Fxlow/Counterscliffe/Turncliffe where I haven't found a baptism record for the children but they are in census records. More later.

Nons  site now upto date on Bonsall tree and data but the Duffield tree has errors. I've integrated the Duffield tree into the Needham Derbsyhire tree and that latter tree is upto date with the Duffield leg. The Duffield family data is not upto date.

Subsequently updated the Duffield tree buta Duffield family page is needed

Updated the Norton trees on nons and added two new Trees - Norton 3 & 4. So much to do!

I knew more than I thought about the Needham's of Duffield & Bonsall. I'd already written a document on the origins of the Needham's of Bonsall and I've now expanded this into a document on Duffield. Both have been added to the nons website.

Started looking again at Derbyshire wills and in particular those from Bonsall & Duffield. John Needham of Duffield d1817 was so annoyed with the behaviour of his grandson John Needham that he updated his will and took away the family bible he had bequeathed him in an earlier version.

Have now moved to Bullguard for my security package and have got a system care package up and working. Hopefully this might reduce my blue screen incidents

After a weekend off in London I've come back and gone through my mail and found an enquiry about Ruth Needham of Duffield born 1767 from SW. I don't know much about the Needham's of Duffield so set about looking for them.

Then I came across the Diary of Thomas Needham from Horsley in Derbyshire who kept a diary between 1835 and 1875. It is on line at:  http://horsley-village-diary.weebly.com/ . Take a look at it it's fascinating. I've written to the owners of the site asking permission to quote their work

After many problems with Dreamweaver the Braithwell family tree has been added. Thanks should go to John Stead who provided transciptions of the Parish registers and the tree structure
Still having problems with the Page folder not opening in Dreamweaver!
Have updated the Norton BBM files
Have upated the Sheffield NGN family tree taking out the rogue Broomhead & Loxley's - but some of the media files eg for me are not working!
Backed up the home directory

Nons has been updated with Baptism, Burial & Marriage data from Harthill Parish Records. Most of this data was transcribed by John Stead. I am very grateful for his help. In addition, the data has been aggregated into families and where possible the families linked. A tree has been drawn and added to the site.
Learning lesson. Don't rely on one set oof records. John's transcrription was the most complete but there were records that were available only on the Bishops Transcripts  as the original register was damaged or missing

After some problems setting up the tree, the Cheshire Tree is now on line. This covers Needham's in the the parishes of Poynton, Prestbury and Pott Shrigley. I'm not sure all the census returns have copied correctly, time will tell. The tree was largely built by Sue McNulty from transcriptions of the parish registers she has provided. The tree should now open in the browser of your choice no thanks to Microsoft.
In addition I've added a tree for Brampton in Derbyshire. Thanks to Liz Newbery for all her help in building the tree. Much of the structure is hers and she has a wealth of knowledge on the Needham's in Brampton

Web pages added for Bap Bur & Mar for Pott Shrigley & Prestbury plus family pages for these two parishes and Poynton. BUT I'm a bit fed up with Microsoft who tried to get $100from me to upgrade so I could See my own web page created from a spreadsheet. I saved i in an earlier vesion and it all works OK except for the Poynton family page which loads on internet explorer. Will have to sort it out on Friday evening

Well a big day, I've started loading parish records for Cheshire starting with baptism, burial and marriage records for Poynton. To follow will be data for Prestbury and Pott Shrigley together with their associated trees. I have to thank Sue McNulty who has provided transcriptions of the registers and has been patient and thorough in critiquing the trees

Updated hearth tax data and Poll tax info on nons
Started clean up on Brampton family spreadsheet
Listed actions- see page

Updated Rotherham baptism, marriage and burial data in nons website

Updated marriage,  burial and baptism data ready for insertion into website
Tried to sort out burials to match baptisms of Joseph Needham's born in Rotherham; difficult and not succeeded
Updated Roth 5 Tree - ready to go on website
Received obituary for Uncle Bill following his death on 2 Oct 2016
learning point; Don't forget Bishops transcripts if there are issues with Parish records ie can't read early Rotherham Parish records ie before 1721 but BT's are Ok and online

Updated Rotherham Summary spreadsheet with burial and marriage data from fmp. Clear that the fmp data has much more detail than that on FS/IGI or Ancestry allowing burial data to be accurately attached to a person. The data gives the father or spouse of the deceased. Should be able to update the nons site and generate extensive trees for Rotherham Needham's.

New baptism data for Rotherham. Updated summary..

Mail from AW re Hawkins
Mail from SM re Cheshire Needham's - new data
Found Hearth Tax info for West Yorkshire and a source for Cheshire & Shropshire

Downloaded records for Penistone but need to check against data already got and found new records (pre 1720)  for Rotherham in Bishop's Transcripts. Away for weekend so will not be doing much until Sunday

The Needham's are from Derbyshire but have spread world wide. This blog is about my work on the Needham One Name Study I've started. The work is summarised in the associated website www.nons.co.uk ( Needham One Name Study). The study is registered with the Guild of One Name Studies