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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,147 members
    • 2,064 studies
    • 7,340 surnames

Retained profile for the former
Snary One-Name Study

This study is no longer registered with the Guild, but this profile page has been retained at the member's request. Please note that neither officers nor members of the Guild are able to answer any questions about this study.

About the study

An unusual surname, together with family stories of a death in a vat of toffee and ownership of a Scottish castle started the search for family history; all Snary references were collected in the hope that a connection might emerge. Eventually the non-family data exceeded that with family connections.

The study began in 1999 - a joint study with my wife, also a member of the Guild. It is still very much a study in progress, information and queries welcomed.

We still have not found the castle.

Variant names

Snarey, Snarry, Sneary

Over seventy different spellings of the names have been encountered, in old and newer sources.

Name origin

The name may be derived from the Old Norse name Snari, from the Old Norse snarr meaning swift.

Name frequency

The ONS database suggests that there were about 290 living Snarys in England and Wales in 2002. This compares with 182 in 1881, 235 in 1891 and 271 in 1901; always less than thousandth of one percent of the total population. The Snarry line had died out in the UK before 2002.

Distribution of the name

In the eighteenth century the main concentrations in the UK were in the English counties of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Huntingdonshire and Gloucestershire. The concentration in the South West probably had Irish origins.

The variant names have been found across North America; Sneary, while appearing rarely in Canada is by far the most common variant in the USA. The variant names have been found in 42 of the United States.

Some variants of the name have been found in Australia, New Zealand & South Africa

Data

BMD data from the UK 1837 to 2006

England and Wales Censuses 1841 to 1911

UK Grants of Probate and some Wills

US Censuses 1830 to 1930 and Canadian Censuses 1852 to 1911 and some North American BMD data

Details from Parish Registers


Surname Interests

Although the Snary surname is not registered with us as a study, the following members have an interest in this surname:

Member Country Region Period
Mrs Sue Mastel England Bristol and surrounding counties All

 

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Snary in the Guild Indexes
(Click on the number to view the search results in each index. Indexes marked by * are only accessible by logged in Guild members.)
  • Global Marriages  200
  • Probate Index* 1

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Program
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild’s “Surname Cloud”
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: Guild General Contact
Postal address:
c/o Treasurer,
3 Windsor Gardens,
Herne Bay,
Kent, CT6 8FE. UK.
Call us free on:
UK: 0800 011 2182
US & Canada: 1-800-647-4100
Australia: 1800 305 184

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