A beginner’s guide to historical investigation
Place-names and surnames
Place-names
Gazetteer of British Place-names
www.gazetteer.co.uk
An index to the place-names of Great Britain, containing over 50,000 entries, plus the historic county and main administrative area in which each place lies.
A Key to English Place-names
www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/epncurrent/keytoepn.html
A database maintained at the Institute for Name-Studies at the University of Nottingham. It provides an up-to-date guide to the interpretation of the names of England's cities, towns and villages, drawing on the work of the English Place-name Society and other researchers.
Norfolk and Suffolk Place-names
www.englishplacenames.co.uk
Interesting article that contains information that could be applied to place-names elsewhere in England.
Place-names of the Yorkshire Dales
www.daelnet.co.uk/placenames
As above, but with an emphasis on the Yorkshire Dales. There is also a dictionary of Yorkshire place-names.
Scottish Place-Name Society
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/institutes/sassi/spns/index.htm
Supports all aspects of toponymic studies in Scotland and, in particular, the work of the Scottish Place-name Database at the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh.
Celebrating Ulster’s Townlands
www.ulsterplacenames.org/celebrating_ulster's_
townlands_exhibition.htm
An exhibition adapted for the internet that traces the names of the ‘townlands’ of Northern Ireland.
Surnames
Family names
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name
Extensive Wikipedia article that covers English-, French-, German- and Dutch-speaking countries, as well as many individual countries
Guild of One-Name Studies
www.one-name.org
An organisation that traces all instances of various surnames around the world. The ‘Registered names’ and ‘On-line records’ sections have a certain amount of information and (usually) contact details of the guild member investigating a particular name.
Glossary of last name meanings and origins
http://genealogy.about.com/library/surnames/
bl_meaning.htm
Includes last name meanings and origins, plus research links, common last name spelling variations and surname search tips for last names of English, Irish, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Jewish origin.
