Weigh One-Name Study

Weigh
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Weigh One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
Contact Details

About the Weigh One-Name Study

The Weigh One-Name study began in the 1980s, when I found it was the maiden surname of my mother's maternal grandmother. When told the surname, I assumed it was spelled 'Way', but started collecting all occurrences when I found it was 'Weigh'. I have constructed 5 trees, which include all the people in the censuses, but there are still many people from earlier who I cannot allocate.

The name was registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies in 2006.

Variants

The registered variant is Wiegh, but Wigh was also be variant.

Origin of the surname

From the data I have collected, the source of the name is the parish of Hawarden in Flintshire, North Wales, where it appears as early as 1566. However the name is probably not Welsh as it has none of the characteristics of a patronymic. It has been suggested that it may be English and that they may have come over the border in the 13th century.

Frequency of the name

From the index of the 1881 census produced by the Church of Latter Day Saints, there were 115 Weighs in that census.

According to an ONS database there are some 232 Weighs as of September 2002, which ranks it as joint 19377th.

Distribution of the name

In the 1881 census 69 in Flintshire, 17 of the people are in Lancashire, 10 in each of Cheshire and Staffordshire, 4 in North Riding of Yorkshire and 3 in Warwickshire, London and Surrey.

Data

All of the Weigh entries from the General Register Offices for England & Wales (1837 - 1935) and Scotland (none) have been recorded.

Wills since 1858 in England and Wales are being collected.

Most of census entries have been found.

All entries in the IGI and transcribed by others have been checked.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Ms Susan G Turner
E-mail:

This page last updated 8 March 2008.