Summer 2001 and Revised 12 May 2001
Have you wondered where you should begin looking for a particular ancestor?
Well, it is probably better to start looking in a state where there are a relatively large number of people with the surname you are researching rather than in a state where there are few people with that surname.
We found a website which will help you find the states where there relatively large numbers of people of that surname at different points in time.
At that website you can enter the surname and you'll get a map of the United States showing the distribution of people with this surname within the 50 United States. You can select 1 of 4 different databases: the 1850 Census, 1880 Census, 1920 Census, and 1990's phone books. You should note that the Census data is only a sampling of 1 in 100 names, so the 1990 data is the most accurate.
You will find the website at Hamrick Software - U.S. Surname Distribution.
If you know of any other helpful websites, please contact us at dewald@prenticenet.com and please include the title and date of this article.
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