Although I have been concentrating on my own line of Faulders (who I can trace back to North Cumberland in 1754), I am taking an interest in other lines because they may eventually give a clue to my line further back.

I have also been working with GenMap UK an application that will map Genealogical Data. This has helped me get a view of where there are major groups of Faulders.

I have used FreeBMD for my data which gives transcripts of Birth Marriage and Death Registrations in England and Wales. Although this source is very convenient there are a number of problems.

1. It only covers the period from the beginning of civil registration in 1837
2. In the early years not everyone registered these events
3. Because it is a volunteer operation not 100% of the registrations have been transcribed (close but not 100%)
4. Recent events (last few decades) have not been transcribed
5. The transcription refers to Registration Districts which vary over time. I have therefore tried to allocate Districts to Counties (pre 1974 counties). However some districts cover areas in more than one county; in such cases I have allocated the whole district to the county in which the named place lies. So Scarborough Registration District covers both North and East Riding, but Scarborough Town itself is in North Riding, so I have allocated the whole district to North Riding.
6. Distinguishing between Middlesex and London is not easy and London is so small that it barely shows. For the Maps, I have therefore manipulated the final data to show Middlesex and London as just “Middlesex”.

Consequently the data is not perfect but indicatively it is still useful.

So what do the maps generated by GenMap UK look like?

Faulder Family Births per FreeBMD @ 13 April 2014

Births: Commentary Cumberland is the major concentration followed by Hertfordshire and Middlesex. Westmorland, Lancashire and Northumberland come next, followed by clusters in Durham, North Riding, West Riding, Derbyshire, Essex and Surrey. The remaining clusters are probably too small to be significant. However, the map shows that there may be two major clusters – Northern and South Eastern.

Faulder Family Marriages per FreeBMD @ 13 April 2014

Marriages: Commentary Cumberland is the major concentration followed by Westmorland, Lancashire, and Hertfordshire & Middlesex. Northumberland, Durham, and West Riding, follow together with Essex and Surrey. The remaining clusters are probably too small to be significant. However, the map again shows that there may be two major clusters – Northern and South Eastern.

Faulder Family Deaths per FreeBMD @ 13 April 2014

Deaths: Commentary Cumberland is the major concentration followed by Lancashire, and Hertfordshire & Middlesex. Westmorland, Northumberland, Durham, North Riding and Cheshire follow together with Essex and Surrey. The remaining clusters are probably too small to be significant. Again the map shows that there may be two major clusters – Northern and South Eastern.

Conclusions in respect of future work

Combining the data underlying the above maps with Census records can help form family trees. I have started to do this for Lancashire records and found that in many cases the families originated in Cumberland. Similar exercises for Westmorland and Northumberland may reveal the same origins. Once these counties have been done a similar exercise can be done in respect of Durham, and the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire.

Long term I have always planned to do a similar exercise for the Hertfordshire cluster to see if the families originate in the North. The Middlesex, Surrey and Essex clusters may benefit from being done together as many of the Surrey BMDs are from North Surrey and many of the Essex BMDs are from West Essex – both areas that are now in Greater London.

A similar set of exercises for South Scotland (particularly Dumfries) if done on pre 1837 parish records may reveal where the Cumberland Faulders came from.