Osborn archipelago (subjective analysis of data on this surname)

Question

FYI, I posted impressions of data on Osborns pursuant to limited work on my surname: Osborn archipelago in N. America

The page is in the Osborn Name Study category.

Comments

I loved this information! Great Job! I was quickly able to access My Osborn/Osborne Family with Your Island Titles! Thanks Again! pam

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Thanks for the feedback Pam. Glad you found it useful!

Will try to find time to update the system. There are other "islands" (or "islets"). Also a number of additions that might connect a couple of them.

I'm thinking it would be useful to have a kind of GIS to display sets of relationships (such as surname islands) on a dynamic map. Well beyond my technical scope but would be very interesting to visualize how particular family groups exist (and shift over time) in geographical space.

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This is very nice. I have added this category to see how we are all connected and what areas the Osborn/Osborne have originated from.

Answer 1

Nicely done! :)

Comments

Thanks Betty. This effort of course relied on data previously entered by others and/or readily available on other sources. Engaging it revealed what seemed to me to be some patterns - others might see it differently. That said, I wonder about this kind of characterization of family name info on Wikitree as a way to heighten interest among people having that name. IOW provides an access point to a set of relationships in geographic space with a kind of mini-narrative. If that makes any sense...

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Don, how long did it take you to do this?  Just curious.  And what made you decide to do this?  I see patterns myself when doing research.  Don't ask me to give a specific example, I just happen to notice, so I can see that you would find patterns too.

It makes sense. :)

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Thanks for your interest, Betty.

The page itself took a late weekend morning, but the ideas had been brewing for a bit longer. Some time ago, I had worked on my line, that of Gov. Chase Salmon Osborn, and that of Henry Fairfield Osborn, and realized that there was no apparent intersection. Looking more recently at some others while scouting possible ways around what you all call a "brick wall," it became clear that there were numerous lines that shared no common "Osborn" link in the US, let alone one that could be identified further back in Britain. Hence the image of islands.

So there was some time compiling mental notes, especially since I got active again in genealogy (via WikiTree) last May and this fall. And it just came time to write them up in some fashion before I started to forget details.

Writing them up then frees a bit of space to look for others, so you may note that I've added a few more (and changed bullets to numbering).

Total time for all work on WikiTree is hard to estimate, though I tend to work quickly in a wiki environment once I get an idea of (1) how the system works, (2) what main sources or types of sources to use, and (3) a flow that works for me.

This all fits into a larger strategy, or so I like to think. First of all fill out as much as possible of the story of Osborns in the hope that that may shed light on the Ozias Osborn mystery (the brick wall mentioned above). Already seen one possibility, but will have to wait for more info.

And second, by filling out and connecting where possible various Osborn lines, and then characterizing it as you see in "Osborn archipelago," that may catch the imagination of others who might then carry some of that work further.

Have you thought of doing a quick writeup of some of the patterns you've noticed in families you work on?

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There were dozens of Osberns in the Domesday Book, and the surname became common over half of England.  It must have become a surname in many unrelated famlies independently.

This will mean the immigrants had a lot of different haplogroups, unless there really were any brothers.  So yDNA should be very useful in separating lines and breaking bogus name's-the-same connections.

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Never so extensively Don!!  I think what you are doing is great, and I would not even know where to start.  The thought of making it, and maintaining, something cohesive such as that leaves me a bit faint of heart.  I am a rambler...afraid it would come out in my writing.  LOL

The Osborne's in my tree only go back to the late 1700's so far.  The last one, John Osborn, has a question mark on his birth because she wasn't sure if he was born in Philadelphia or not.  She only knows he died in Ohio.  They then migrated to Texas.

My mom had notes, which my sister now has, so there may be more.  My mom passed away before she could enter everything in to the Ancestry Family Tree program.  (Which is what I use, I kinda have to find the stuff all over again.)

When you say you can find no apparent connection to the two Osborns you mention above, I take it to mean they are actually two separate branches in your tree?  Is that common in family trees?

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Ok, stupid question, can one purchase a copy of the Domesday book RJ Horace?  I know what it is, how old it is, etc.didn't know it had been transcribed, or what have you, so that it could be printed?

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Penguin paperback (translation only)

https://www.amazon.com/Domesday-Book-Complete-Translation-Historical/dp/0140515356/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512979212&sr=1-3&keywords=alecto+domesday

Potted history while on the subject

1783 - transcribed by Abraham Farley and printed in a special font.  No translation.  V expensive, v rare book.

1860s - Henry James printed photocopies, still no translation.  Some online.

Then you had an emperor's new clothes thing where everybody could access it and nobody could admit they didn't understand it, because they didn't know enough about feudal England.

By about 1900 they thought they knew enough for the Victoria County History to include a translation for the county in Vol 1 of each county set.  The Vol 1s seem to be missing on the BHO site, but some are scanned eg Surrey

https://archive.org/stream/historyofsurrey01malduoft#page/n357/

Some counties don't have a Vol 1 yet.

The translations are said to be inconsistent because they were done by different people over a long period.

1975 - new translation by John Morris, published by Phillimore in 39 volumes.  Wikipedia says it didn't replace VCH as the most authoritative.  Hull University has a digital version by JJ (John) Palmer, which might be downloadable, but I didn't have the patience to penetrate the website.

1985 - TNA had to rebind the books, so while they were dismantled they photographed them in colour on full-size glass plates with a camera the size of a car.

Alecto under GH (Geoffrey) Martin then did a new set of facsimiles from the new photos and an upgrade of the VCH translation to standardize it.  Various editions including the Penguin paperback.

VCH now tell writers of new volumes to use Alecto instead of their own in Vol 1.

For genealogy, Keats-Rohan's Domesday People is more useful.  It collates Domesday with all the other records and extracts all the people with any known genealogy (only a small minority).

For reference

Palmer's scans of the new photos

http://opendomesday.org/book/gloucestershire/10/

PASE database

http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/

TNA has Alecto pay-per-view

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/domesday-book/#6-accessing-domesday-online

Another project (incomplete)

http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/index.html

 

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Very nice summary, R.J. Thanks.

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Thanks RJ. Appreciate your earlier comment re diversity of immigrants. Will be interesting to see how data fills out, but agree that there would be multiple origins.

Thx also for the details on Domesday book - might be worth making a special page with this info, more readily accessible on WikiTree?

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Thanks Betty, Appreciate your comments. Noted the tree from John Osborn - it is impressive if all of that comes from your mother's notes.

Wrt the other Osborn's I mentioned, there is no intersection of lines or relationship that can be shown. An aunt once suggested a relationship with Gov. Chase Osborn's line, but this doesn't seem likely (or at best would go way back). So those 3 lines I mentioned (also that of William Henry Osborn and sons) are not related as far as I can tell.

That said, I have seen relations to other Osborn lines through ancestors of other surnames. That sort of thing is probably not unusual.

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Holy Moly, RJ!!  I had no idea!!  I can't wait to look at one of the links.  Have always wondered about it, guess it never occurred to me that, in this day and age, someone would have made it available.  Thank you for all of the links.  Going to save them.

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Thank you, Don.  Yes, John Osborn, and what is on the profile, uploaded when I uploaded the gedcom and anything there is from my mom's research.

Wish I could do all the research she did.  I am limited to what I find on the internet due to funds.  :(  The Mormon libraries in this VERY rural area, do not open until 11 am, I think it is, and by then I am getting tired because I work at night.  I think they are also only open once a week.  Been a while since I checked.

My mom went to the National Archives in Laguna Niguel all the time, along with the public and Mormon libraries. Plus my dad took her all over the country every year, he had 2 vacations a year, so they would take off.

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Good idea, Don, to put those links about the Domesday book on Wikitriee!