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Introduction
One of the most important things any study can do is define its scope, particularly when it is as big as this. By defining the scope we can decide what the study does and does not cover. But we can also use it to take an overview of the whole.
As a reminder, the basic study attempts to:
collect as much data as possible on people with the surnames HOWES, HOWS, HOWSE and HOUSE and their descendents
form the individuals into family groups and groups of families linked by birth and marriage
where relevant, provide documentary backup for DNA analysis
provide other benefits, like helping people break through "brick walls" in their research
research the origins of the surnames
by doing so, become the global research resource for anyone researching any of the surnames.
Census counts for family names
A basic first step is to count the universe of names within the study. This we have done at least within the UK. so listed below are my own counts for each surname at each census within the UK from 1841 to 1911 inclusive. At the foot of the page is a table with the detail by country and year.
If anyone would like to collect and collate parallel data for other countries, it would be greatly appreciated! For example, I'm looking for counts of people called Howes/Hows/Howse or House for Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States at least for whatever years are available.
|
Howes |
Hows |
Howse |
House |
Total |
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| 1841 |
2692 |
188 |
829 |
2277 |
5986 |
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| 1851 |
3115 |
127 |
1065 |
2724 |
7031 |
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| 1861 |
3787 |
100 |
973 |
3095 |
7955 |
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| 1871 |
4372 |
121 |
1091 |
3480 |
9064 |
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| 1881 |
5333 |
210 |
1220 |
3957 |
10720 |
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| 1891 |
5872 |
125 |
1324 |
3914 |
11235 |
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| 1901 |
7147 |
141 |
1447 |
4662 |
13397 |
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| 1911 |
8376 |
177 |
1394 |
5337 |
15284 |
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Learnings from the data
The data clearly show that:
Howes and its variants are English names. There are very few instances in Wales and Scotland relative to their populations.
there was phenomenal growth in population in the 19th century paralleling the growth in the overall population
this growth occurred despite substantial emigration from the UK to other countries controlled by, or formerly controlled by, the UK.
there is "noise" in the system. Look particularly at fluctuations in counts for Wales and Scotland. I can confirm there are similar issues within parts of England. That noise comes from several sources: people moving about, how census enumerators wrote down the surnames they heard from each census interviewee, and how their writing was then interpreted by the transcribers of the electronic records.
the population of all four groups together grew by 155% in 70 years. This in itself is interesting since it is substantially higher than the growth of the British population as a whole, which grew by only 69% in that period. It could be that this is a reflection mainly of more emigration from the celtic fringe of the UK (Welsh, Irish and Scottish) although I doubt it. It could be that people with our surnames were less likely to emigrate, though given the number overseas, I doubt that. I'm not at all familiar with whether this result parallels other social history studies, but if anyone can shed any light on this I would greatly appreciate it.
the population of those named Howes grew by 211%, those called House grew by 134%, the Howses grew by 68% and the Hows fell by 6% in those same 70 years. This is fascinating: the biggest groups grew by the biggest amounts! In part, I suspect this is normal surname concentration, but remember that this change happened during the very period when surnames were being standardized. It may be that far from Howes genes being more fecund, people were simply coalescing around a single spelling. As we have seen elsewhere, choices were likely made for them by clergy, registrars, schoolmasters and other educated people.
What the totals do not show is the extent and speed of movement of the population within the UK as the cities of the Midlands and North suddenly grew during the industrial revolution and its aftermath and as rural depopulation continued. Neither do they show the extent of the emigration actually happening. For that, we can observe the speed with which populations were growing in the "colonies".
It will be interesting to see whether other significant survey studies with multiple variant groups show the same effects as those described above.
Paul Howes, March 2010
The detail
In the table, Eng refers to England, Wal to Wales, Sco to Scotland, CIs to the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, etc) and Man to the Isle of Man, data At this point, only data for Scotland for 1911 is missing.
|
Howes |
Hows |
Howse |
House |
Total |
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| Eng1841 |
2645 |
188 |
808 |
2214 |
5855 |
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| Eng1851 |
3105 |
117 |
1041 |
2614 |
6877 |
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| Eng1861 |
3750 |
97 |
961 |
2979 |
7787 |
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| Eng1871 |
4315 |
114 |
1071 |
3291 |
8791 |
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| Eng1881 |
5286 |
209 |
1202 |
3814 |
10511 |
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| Eng1891 |
5827 |
125 |
1283 |
3729 |
10964 |
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| Eng1901 |
7064 |
140 |
1424 |
4388 |
13016 |
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| Eng1911 |
8270 |
177 |
1367 |
5030 |
14844 |
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| Wal1841 |
21 |
0 |
2 |
19 |
42 |
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| Wal1851 |
3 |
0 |
13 |
40 |
56 |
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| Wal1861 |
12 |
0 |
10 |
36 |
58 |
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| Wal1871 |
29 |
1 |
6 |
51 |
87 |
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| Wal1881 |
26 |
1 |
6 |
129 |
162 |
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| Wal1891 |
27 |
0 |
26 |
97 |
150 |
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| Wal1901 |
36 |
1 |
19 |
150 |
206 |
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| Wal1911 |
102 |
0 |
27 |
304 |
433 |
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| Sco1841 |
25 |
0 |
19 |
38 |
82 |
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| Sco1851 |
0 |
6 |
11 |
58 |
75 |
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| Sco1861 |
9 |
0 |
2 |
74 |
85 |
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| Sco1871 |
22 |
2 |
13 |
132 |
169 |
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| Sco1881 |
14 |
0 |
12 |
9 |
35 |
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| Sco1891 |
12 |
0 |
15 |
74 |
101 |
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| Sco1901 |
43 |
0 |
4 |
113 |
160 |
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| Sco1911 |
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0 |
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| CIs1841 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
7 |
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| CIs1851 |
7 |
4 |
0 |
12 |
23 |
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| CIs1861 |
16 |
3 |
0 |
6 |
25 |
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| CIs1871 |
6 |
4 |
1 |
6 |
17 |
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| CIs1881 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
12 |
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| CIs1891 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
19 |
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| CIs1901 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
14 |
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| CIs1911 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
6 |
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| Man1841 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Man1851 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Man1861 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Man1871 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Man1881 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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| Man1891 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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| Man1901 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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| Man1911 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
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