Researchers

Dr Malcolm Smith, University of Durham
Dr Don MacRaild, Dan Jackson, University of Northumbria
Prof Tony Hepburn, Jim MacPherson, University of Sunderland

January 2003-January 2005

Context

Isonymy - a quantitative method based on the distribution and frequency of surnames - has been used extensively in biological anthropology to investigate the structure populations, but has seldom been applied in social sciences. Research on the origins and migration pattern of the Irish in Britain in the late nineteenth century is hampered by lack of detailed birthplace attribution in the 19th century censuses.

Aims and Objectives

• To promote the method of isonymy within social sciences, by demonstrating its use in a substantive research project generated within the discipline of history;
• To investigate the provenance, migration patterns and sectarian structure of the Irish population in northern England 1851-1901 by isonymic analysis of census data.

Methodological aspects

• To promote and exemplify the use of isonymy as a method for the analysis of problems generated within the discipline of history;
• Calculate coefficients of relationship by isonymy;
• Display isonymy matrices by non-metrical multimensional scaling and similar methods;
• Test hypotheses of spatial and other correlation by Mantel tests.

Research Design

• Sample Irish and local-born controls in northern England at 1881 census;
• Analyse surname distributions in Griffiths Valuation, and compare with Irish migrant population in England;
• Use extended English census sample from 1851-1901 censuses for key towns of significance for Irish settlement, eg Cleator Moor, Whitehaven, Consett, Jarrow;
• Analyse residential segregation in Belfast from 1901 census, street directories and marriage registers. Use as a model of sectarian division in English towns;
• Parallel analysis of migration and structure of settlement and community, using newspapers, society records, employment records, family histories.

Outputs

Outreach/Dissemination Wrexham Science Festival March 2003.
International Colloquium, Summer 2004.
Papers planned for Economic History Review, Journal of Historical Geography.
Monograph on Irish migrants in Britain.