Topics

• About the Horridge One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Links
• Contact Details

About the Horridge One-Name Study

I first started researching my family history about 20 years ago knowing little other than my parents and grandparents were from the East End of London. My first steps were to work through the heavy GRO Birth index books at St Catherine's House recording every Horridge entry up to 1901. I very soon realised that there were very few in the London area and after then restricted my Horridge research to London and Essex.

When I reached the proverbial “brick wall” with my London Horridge ancestry I started researching my other ancestral lines but have now got stuck with some of these. Having become more experienced along the way, I’ve now decided to undertake a full One Name Study in the hope that I may be able to knock a hole in the wall (if not demolish it completely).

A lot of my London Horridges were Lightermen in the various London docks and on the Thames in general. Their apprenticeship records have helped greatly in getting exact dates etc.

Variants

At the moment, the only registered variant is Hawridge (one of the possible origins of the surname). Despite the East End habit of of dropping their “aitches”, I have not included the surname Orridge as this is already being studied by another Guild member.

Origin of the surname

There are a few possible origins of the surname Horridge (according to various research guides) none of which I’ve been able to verify at this time.

Distribution of the name

From my 1837-1901 GRO births indexing, I found that only 27 out of the 1,373 (only 2% !!) entries were in the London area and most of these are connected to me. The majority of the others were in Lancashire and the North West of England.

Data

From the start, I have been collecting all London and South East Horridge GRO Births, Marriages and Deaths as well as census returns. My next immediate task is to expand that to cover the whole of the UK.

Links

A brief overview of my Horridge research can be seen at Horridge Family History Website

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Brian E Horridge
Caxton House,
Chiltern Rd,
Chesham Bois,
Amersham
HP6 5PH
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 13 January 2012.

Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.