Ferguson Population Maps 1881
The following maps show the distribution of the Fergusons in the north west of England by county and by Poor Law Union (PLU), also by absolute number and per 100,000 of population. The maps were generated using The British 19 Century Software Atlas from Archer Software. Those using the actual number are on the left and the proportional on the right, whilst the top row comprises the county maps.
They all show the decrease in the population as one moves from north to south, but more interestingly the PLU maps show how the population varies locally within each county. The proportional maps also illustrate that as a percentage of the population the rate of change is more gradual, and less erratic, than might be thought from the actual numbers.
Google Earth
The image on the right, of a Google Earth Screen, shows the distribution of all the Ferguson (and similar named) births which I have found to date. In general it covers the period from 1837 (and for many. earlier) to 1901 and includes people born in Cumberland, Westmorland and, moving south, Lancashire to Preston. nearly all of the pins outside this area are either descendants or ancestors of someone who at some stage lived within those areas. I have described one way of creating a similar map from Legacy Data in this tutorial.
If you have Google Earth installed then this link will show the birth pattern for the births so far found. When it is loaded click the time switch, highlighted in white on the image on the right, and it will rotate throught the births. I have arbitarily set a fifty year life span for each pin. The decline after around 1940 is obviously due to the recording of births mainly before 1901.
A current image of the one on the right may be reproduced by moving the sliders to the position shown; clicking on a pin will display the information relating to that individual. It is best to enlarge the image before viewing, as many pins overlap, particularly in the larger towns.
National Statistics
The website Surnames of England and Wales allows one to search for any surname and variants recorded in 2002 by the Office of National Statistics. Seven of those for my own name are:
| Surname | Count | Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Farguson | 41 | =57456 |
| Farquarson | 33 | =65961 |
| Farquharson | 1497 | =4759 |
| Ferguson | 23669 | =293 |
| Fergusson | 1315 | =5287 |
| Furguson | 5 | =230512 |
| Furgusson | 95 | =34220 |
Send your comments to Ron Ferguson