Here's a neat little Net toy for those of you with UK ancestry. The distribution of Allports is shown here. I knew the name had Midlands origins but I'm shocked and slightly appalled to see its heavy distribution in mid-Wales. I'm 'ex-industrial legacy' and 82 per cent of people have a higher-status surname. Lawks.
(Although it seems quiet now they've been having some server problems due to heavy useage, so be patient).
Posted by Alan Allport at January 18, 2006 04:00 PMNice goin', Alan — you broke it!
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at January 18, 2006 04:02 PMIt was like that when I found ... try it again, it seems alright now.
Posted by: Alan Allport at January 18, 2006 04:09 PMNever noticed it before, but "those of you with UK ancestry" applies to all of us, based on surname. Except maybe Bobby, that is — never can remember his last name.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at January 18, 2006 04:20 PMThanks for this -- would you be up for doing a bit of interpretation for those of us whose knowledge of British geography ends with the Heptarchy?
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at January 18, 2006 09:24 PMSure, though for a lot of the counties, particularly the fiddly ones Down South, I'd probably just have to look them up like anyone else.
Posted by: Alan Allport at January 19, 2006 05:00 AMNot me. Pennsylvania German. Only English in me is a great-great-grandfather who impregnated his parents' housekeeper.
Posted by: Martha Bridegam at January 19, 2006 08:24 PMLooking for my father and his mother in B'ham 1885 his dob
Posted by: davis bertie at January 25, 2006 02:22 PMWhy is he appalled that the Alports are found in mid_Wales?
Posted by: Keith Evans at January 30, 2006 11:00 AMWhy is he appalled that the Alports [sic] are found in mid_Wales?
He was joking ...?
Posted by: Alan Allport at January 30, 2006 11:39 AM