RUBY One-Name Study : studying the Ruby surname across the world

This month, the Guild acknowledged an important date in the history of our organisation. The quote below came from the Rayment Society , which is, as you might expect a surname registered with the Guild. “Saturday 13th May 1978 The first one-name conference opened at the Grand Hotel in Leicester, England, where a formal resolution was carried unanimously to establish a Guild of individuals engaged in one-name research” So, the Guild of One-Name Studies steps into the pathway of our year leading up to our 40 th Birthday. For those who are familiar with the use of gem stones to, represent typically wedding anniversaries will know that recently the Guild launched the Ruby One-Name Study in celebration of our 40 th year of existence.   About 18 months ago several Committee members began work on a “starting your one-name” article. That very quickly morphed into a set of web page about starting a study, and you can read them HERE . One of the most important...

In my own one-name study, I have been to different countries both virtually and in person to conduct research.   The effort to date has been primarily in the Channel Islands, pre-confederation Newfoundland, Canada, England, a very little bit of France, and some beginning research in the United States. I am fortunate to have a reasonable degree of fluency in French, which I have used quite a bit in old Jersey documents, although the Jersey dialect itself, known as Jèrrais , is definitely beyond me.   Thank goodness a lot of old documents followed the Norman tradition of “standard” French.   The Ruby project presents quite an interesting experience for those who have not strayed far from home in their one-name study research.   It is unlikely that any version of Ruby has its origins in the United Kingdom, despite a longstanding presence in southwestern England and in parts of Ireland.   Preliminary reading suggests that for both these areas, th...