How the Genners changed over time

An interesting website which i found earlier is National Trust Names. This uses census data from 1881 and 1998 and can show on a map the frequency of surnames being found in various areas of the UK. Unfortunately there is no option to view the 2 maps side by side... so i created my own charting the location of people who shared my ancestor's name Genner.



The darker the colour the more Genners there are! As can be seen in 1881 mid-Wales was a common place to find Genners and also the South West Midlands (where my ancestor Mary lived after leaving India). However the most common place was Southall in NW London (not that easy to see on the map). By 1998 many have moved out of mid-Wales with the Black Country being the most common area though also more to be found in the North East, and a lot now in southern Wales too. Many seem also to have left London.

So what can this tell me? Well a major question that remains unanswered is where did Richard Genner (Mary's husband) come from. The fact Mary went to live in Gloucestershire with her new husband Thomas Butler i thought was primarily because he came from Stroud (which is recorded on census returns i have) but perhaps Richard Genner also came from the area, maybe he knew Butler from before he joined the army. However there were also a lot of Genner's in the North East and his regiment was the York & Lancaster Regiment which would have recruited a lot of their men (though probably not all, it would be interesting to know if Butler was in the same regiment) locally. So basically this doesn't help much at all, however is interesting all the same!