Yardy

Yardy One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Yardy

Variants: Yeardye

Category: 2 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way, but currently in some countries only.

Website: www.yardy.org.uk

Contact: Dr David Skyrme

About the study

The objective of this study are to research, record and share information on the family histories and historical contexts of people with the name Yardy and its variants world-wide.

To achieve this a wide range of research resources is being used and will be shared through uploading datasets and trees to the Yardy One-Name website (see below).

Variant names

Yardy, Yeardye (Yarday, Yardey, Yardye - though recent analysis suggests they might be deviants).

Name origin

The most convinving explanation is that Yardy is a diminutive of Yard, a name that first apperaed in the 13th century in Somerset. The 'yard' comes from Old English gerd or gyrd, and refers to a measure of land area, a quarter of a 'hide' or 30 acres. Even today Yard and its variants are clustered in the southwest. However, Yardy and its variants are clustered in The Fens of England (Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Norfolk). For this reason we are not currently including Yard within this study.

Name frequency

Yardy comes into the category of extremely rare (less than 10 births averaged over each of the years 1870 and 1970). Its overall frequency in England is currently 5.7 per million inhabitants, ranking it 16,069. It is 2.3 per million in Australia, 0.9 per million in Canada and 0.4 per million in the USA. Within England the highest frequency is in East Anglia at 70.8 per million. You can find additional information on frequency and distribution on the Yardy website.

Data

There are about 450 Yardys and 130 Yeardyes in the database (though some may be duplicates) and a handful each of Yardays and Yardeys. Sources used include England census records (1841-1911), parish registers (mostly Cambridgeshire), GRO birth marriage and death indexes, newspaper archives, prison hulk records, military records, wills and leases, criminal records, USA censuses and passenger arrivals at Ellis Island.

Good progress was made during 2014-15 in collecting data on a world-wide basis and constructing trees. As new record sets are released by genealogy websites, data us collected. The result is that there are well over 500 individual records to process. However, since 2016 more detailed analysis and construction of trees from these records has only taken place following an enquiry or research request.

Links

For the most up to date information on the study, which only started in February 2013, please go to our website:

The Yardy One-Name website at www.yardy.org.uk

It includes the following sections: latest news, places, surnames, trees, documents, sources and study workplan.

Contact Details

Dr David Skyrme

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Yardy 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 (public) 17
Global Marriages (members)* 18
Probate Index* 1
Study materials for the study Yardy* 10

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