ance of one name, which is probably peculiar to the parish, or to a group of parishes, of which the one in question forms a component part. We find names localized in groups, each group having a centre of density, thinning off, so to speak, toward the edges, and overlapping the groups of other names. In those times locomotion was difficult, and country-people were content to remain where they were born, and intermarry with their near neighbors; but nowadays people are more gad-about, and we should expect to find that such centres of names were broken up. Let us look at a book which deals with names on a large scale—I mean the new "Doomsday-Book." This is not a very good source for information on the subject, for the area, the county, is too large, and the standard of admission for a name, the ownership of land, too high for our purpose; but it is easily consulted, and can give us some idea of the localization of names. It will be seen that many names are nearly confined to, or greatly preponderate in, certain counties. For instance, Goddard is a south-country name, numerous in Hampshire and Wiltshire, occurring but seldom in the midland counties, and not met with in the north, not one person of that name appearing in the list of landowners for Yorkshire. Charlton occurs plentifully in Northumberland, and seldom in the southern half of England. Booth, Ibbotson, and several other names, have their headquarters in the West Riding of Yorkshire, while even such common names as Taylor, Robinson, and such like, occur much more frequently in some counties than in others. Five Shakespears hold land in Warwickshire, and one in the adjoining county of Worcester, but in no other county does the name appear. If names occur thus in groups in modern times, we can easily understand that they were still more localized three or four hundred years ago; and if they are thus localized in a return of landowners, we should find the localization still more apparent if we were to take into account the whole population of the various neighborhoods.
Of the importance of keeping a record of the genealogy of a family it is needless to speak. It is to appeal to a very low standard of usefulness to point to the numbers of advertisements for next of kin, and notices of unclaimed money. Since the establishment of a national system of registration of births, marriages, and deaths, there is not so much chance of the relationships of families being lost as there was in the days of the more careless registration which preceded its institution. But this only dates from 1837; and, moreover, the all-embracing nature of the system causes so many names to be brought together, that an extended search among them is a long and tiring process. It is a useful auxiliary to private registration, but cannot wholly supersede it. The date and place of either of the three occurrences in the life of a person with which genealogy especially concerns itself being known, it is easy to get an official record of the fact from the registrar-general; but to start with only a name, and to have to look through index after
