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Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

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 It’s Saturday Night – 

Time for more Genealogy Fun! 

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible music here) is to:

1)  How many entries are there on Find A Grave for your exact current surname, and the birth surnames of your grandparents?  What about your spouse’s grandparents birth surnames?

Since I was curious about how this data might be used to track migration, I not only searched for the total number but also for the states along the probable migration path back to what is believed to be the country of origin. Since the spelling of the name can and likely did change over time, this data does not prove anything. It was just fun exploring the possibilities.

My Side

Crawford

  • Total: 147,657
  • United States: 120,794
  • Kansas: 2,356
  • Indiana: 3,909
  • Ohio: 8,879
  • Kentucky: 4,050
  • Virginia: 3,225
  • Scotland: 2,644
  • Ireland: 485
  • Northern Ireland: 1,701

Currey

  • Total: 3,830
  • United States: 2,969
  • Kansas: 79
  • Illinois: 107
  • Indiana: 77
  • Ohio: 132
  • Pennsylvania: 159
  • Virginia: 14
  • Scotland: 2
  • England: 229

Briles

  • Total: 1,212
  • United States: 1,173
  • Kansas: 123
  • North Carolina: 248
  • Virginia: 13
  • Germany: 0 (spelling of name changed in Virginia)

Mentzer

  • Total: 3,759
  • United States: 3,675
  • Kansas: 85
  • Illinois: 137
  • Massachusetts: 51
  • Germany: 0
  • Wales: 0
  • England: 0

Husband’s Side

Philbrick

  • Total: 4,199
  • United States: 3,953
  • Kansas: 87
  • Iowa: 33
  • Ohio: 86
  • Pennsylvania: 15
  • Massachusetts: 330
  • England: 46

Sebring

  • Total: 2,753
  • United States: 2,655
  • Pennsylvania: 424
  • New York: 344
  • New Jersey: 180

Strohmeier

  • Total: 594
  • United States: 435
  • Kansas: 17
  • Germany: 72

Griffith

  • Total: 114,238
  • United States: 76,826
  • Kansas: 1,745
  • Ohio: 6,355
  • Virginia: 2,152
  • Wales: 5,904

Thanks Randy for this challenge to look at our data on Find a Grave!

2 thoughts on “Saturday Night Genealogy Fun”

  1. I love the way you broke down your surname list further into places. I took the easy way out and just did totals. Your method, though, might show overall migration patterns. Good job!

    • Even though I haven’t traced immigrant ancestors, most of the European results were expected. However, I was surprised to not find the MENTZER surname in any of the locations I’ve been told they may have come from. Thus, I may need to either look for a spelling change for the surname or broaden the potential locations.

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