Fleming One-Name Study

Fleming
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Fleming One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
DNA project
Links
Contact Details

About the Fleming One-Name Study

I am a married Fleming and started researching my family in 1980. In 1998 I thought gathering all references to the name might be more successful, and so it was, with some great breakthroughs. One aspect of my worldwide interest is to increase access to Fleming data sharing and am always looking for better ways for this to work. I’ve started adding my records to the Guild Data Archive.. For the last five years I’ve had very little time for the study but hopefully now we’re on the improve…

Variants

The registered variants of the name are Flemin, Fleming, Flemming, Flemyng but I consistently also collect Flemings and gather other variations as I see them eg Fleeming, Flaming Flemen, and Fleeman (often a mistranscription of Freeman), Flemington and the much rarer Flemingham.

Origin of the surname

In the middle ages there was a considerable amount of commercial trading between England, Scotland and the Netherlands. This activity occurred particularly in the wool trade, Transcripts of Charters relating to Gilbertine Houses, published in 1922, makes reference to a Serlo Le Fleming as early as 1150. Mention is made of Adam Fleming in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1296. Examples of the Fleming surname are sometimes to be found in Ireland under the Gaelicized form of Pleimeann.

In England the surname is disbursed throughout the country but its highest concentration is in the Cumberland and Westmorland area. Early records attest to Fleming being the name of a well-known Kendal family in the reign of Elizabeth I and James I. In Scotland it is mostly located in the south – especially in the the borders counties, and particularly Dumfriesshire. It was the 76th most common name in Scotland in 1958.

German variants of the surname include Flaming, Flahming and Flehmig, there are also Dutch examples such as (Van) Vlaaderen, and Vlaming.

Historical occurrences

• Sir John Ambrose (1849 - 1945), English physicist and electrical engineer

• Sir Alexander Fleming (1881 - 1955) Scottish bacteriologist and the discoverer of penicillin.

• Ian Lancaster Fleming (1908 – 1964) novelist and creator of James Bond.

• Sir Sandford Fleming (1827 – 1915) surveyor, engineer, creator of telegraphic communication systems and Standard Time.

• Margery Fleming (1803 – 1811) Scottish child became well known as Pet Marjorie when her poetry and journal were published in 1858.

• Sir Thomas Fleming (1544 – 1567) Lord Chief Justice who sentenced Guy Fawkes.

Frequency of the name

The ONS 2002 data shows that there were 16,550 living Fleming and ranked 415th most common name in England and Wales; 669 Flemming the 7948th most common and no Flemin. The site estimates there have been 59,196 Flem(m)ing births in England and Wales since parish registers began in 1500s.

Distribution of the name

Ancestry.com calculates:

1881 England & Wales census: 8,100 Fleming; 1,073 Flemming and 7 Flemin

1880 US Census: 20,343 Fleming; 6,266 Flemming and 32 Flemin.

1848 - 1864 Irish Ancestors shows the distribution of the 1477 paying Fleming and 64 paying Flemming households in the Griffith Vaulation.

1890 Irish Ancestors shows the distribution of the 170 Fleming births in Ireland. While fewer than 5 births of Flemming were recorded in 1890 in Ireland.

1880 US census distribution map; 1891 UK census distribution map. 1871 overall distribution mirrors 1891.

1974 - Netherlands census results including mapped distributions of the surname. http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nfd/index.php?taal=eng

Data

Available for searching in the Guild Data Archive:

• Civil births England and Wales 1837 to 1911 (c. 16,000 entries) and mother's maiden name as discovered.

• Civil marriages England and Wales 1837 – 1911 with spouses as discovered. Some 8,000 marriages and over 4,000 known spouses.

• Civil deaths England and Wales (c. 11,000) 1837 - 1911.

• Probate Index for England and Wales 1858 – 1930.

• Scotland civil marriages begun with 1855 - 1881 and includes spouse.

• Scotland civil births and deaths also 1855 - 1881.

If you can add further details to an individual in any of the indexes please contact me.

• For access to other online sources see my website

1871 Census of England and Wales: 2,483 households.

DNA project

A Fleming yDNA project is being run through Relative Genetics. 'It seems that we have about 12 distinct paternal lines forming from our 60 participants. We look forward to more willing participants. '

To find out more and discover the results so, far visit Janet Flemming's promotional site http://groups.msn.com/FLEMINGDNAPROJECT

Links

Further information and resources can be found at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~fleming/ to help you locate Fleming researchers; Fleming information or the Fleming DNA project.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mrs Ruth Rathbone
555 Sandfly Road,
Sandfly,
Tasmania
7150
Australia
E-mail:

This page last updated 8 March 2008.