Meads Name Study

Profile managers: Martin White [send private message] and One Name Studies WikiTree [send private message]

About the Project

The Meads Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Meads name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join the study to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Meads name.

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Meads), by time period (18th Century Meads), or by topic (Meads DNA, Meads Occupations, Meads Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

How to Join

To join the Meads Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Martin White for assistance.

... ... ... is a member of the Meads Name Study Project.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

• All persons with surname as Meads in the 1921 E&W Census
• All persons with surname recorded as Meads in the '1939 Register'
• All persons with surname Meads as recorded in the 1841 England & Wales census. There are 637 records (April 2021) to be created/matched in WikiTree. If you can help please contact Warren Meads
• All persons with surname Meads as recorded in the 1881 England & Wales census. There are 878 records (April 2021) to be created/matched in WikiTree. If you can help please contact Warren Meads

Membership

Martin White is the grandson of George Ernest Meads (1900-1966) born in Farnborough, Hampshire, England.

Warren Meads is a fourth generation New Zealander descended from Joseph Meads (1803 - 1880) born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England.

Warren started to work with Pauline Meads in the 1990's who contributed a great deal to the Meads family history in New Zealand. The publication "Meads family tree" was produced by Pauline in the 1980's for the New Zealand Meads family reunion. Further information can be found here. Warren continued to work with Pauline until she passed away in 2010. In 2000 Warren published the combined records on the Internet. In 2018/19 these records were transfered to WikiTree. In 2020 he completed a full review of his records and compared these with all New Zealand births, marriages and deaths available for Meads in the public registers and created appropriate additional records in WikiTree.

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

Given that in the 1800's there were a considerable number of people who could not write. This is evidenced by the "By their mark X " on marriage registrations. The early England & Wales census has various variants of Meades and Mead which change between Meads and these two variants from census to census. In the 1911 England & Wales census these were mainly completed by the head of the household and their signiture makes it clear what Family name had been adopted.