Newbiggin-by-the-Sea's family tree of "everyone who has ever lived here"
August 15, 2023 8:39 AM Subscribe
Northumberland coastal village Newbiggin-by-the-Sea has embarked on one of the world's largest genealogy projects. The town of roughly 6,500 people has worked to create an enormous family tree featuring 40,000 individuals stretching back to around the year 1200. The Times. (Archive)
The Íslendingabók - Iceland's genealogy database - has records for nearly a million people from over the past millennium and near total coverage for the past 3 centuries. Tracing a town of 6,500 people's genealogy back 900 years is a big deal, but "possibly the world's largest genealogy project" is a hard claim to make when Iceland's genealogy project has orders of magnitude more records.
posted by thecjm at 8:47 AM on August 15, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by thecjm at 8:47 AM on August 15, 2023 [8 favorites]
"possibly the world's largest genealogy project" is a hard claim to make when Iceland's genealogy project has orders of magnitude more records.
OK. I read a half dozen articles on this and only one referred to it that way, so I probably shouldn't have taken that bit at face value. The point of the FPP post was that this is neat, though, not whether it's a record.
Anywho, this related article has a great bit:
OK. I read a half dozen articles on this and only one referred to it that way, so I probably shouldn't have taken that bit at face value. The point of the FPP post was that this is neat, though, not whether it's a record.
Anywho, this related article has a great bit:
At the first meeting at Newbiggin's Maritime Centre, Hilton said there was a massive gender divide in what people had brought in. He continued: "The women gave us beautiful family albums and meticulous records and family photographs, and a few blokes came along literally with some names and dates written on the back of a fag packet!"posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:51 AM on August 15, 2023 [7 favorites]
Ha! Thirty-five years ago I gave up my boring maiden name (user name spelled backwards) for a more unique surname - Newbegin. For our twenty-fifth anniversary trip, mr. rekrap and I visited Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. I just sent a link of this thread to him - he'll be tickled.
posted by rekrap at 12:41 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by rekrap at 12:41 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Interesting story!
That it's far from the biggest genealogy project doesn't take away from the achievement of this project. For such a small town, it's a significant outcome, although the whole 'everyone related to everyone' probably helps make connections compared to a larger centre.
posted by dg at 5:28 PM on August 15, 2023
That it's far from the biggest genealogy project doesn't take away from the achievement of this project. For such a small town, it's a significant outcome, although the whole 'everyone related to everyone' probably helps make connections compared to a larger centre.
posted by dg at 5:28 PM on August 15, 2023
Tracing a town of 6,500 people's genealogy back 900 years is a big deal, but "possibly the world's largest genealogy project" is a hard claim to make when Iceland's genealogy project has orders of magnitude more records.
The Church of LDS has entered the chat.
Seriously though this is awesome.
Also I love names like Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. Not only does it imply there was a Newbiggin not by the sea it also makes plain that there was a town named Biggen.
posted by Mitheral at 6:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
The Church of LDS has entered the chat.
Seriously though this is awesome.
Also I love names like Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. Not only does it imply there was a Newbiggin not by the sea it also makes plain that there was a town named Biggen.
posted by Mitheral at 6:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
I just bought an old house and when I'm bored I try to find out stuff about people who lived there before me. I've only gone as far back as 1861 but it's a real rabbit hole.
Kind of a different take on geneaology I guess. Geographeneology
posted by benoliver999 at 12:57 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
Kind of a different take on geneaology I guess. Geographeneology
posted by benoliver999 at 12:57 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
« Older Cart Narcs | Do board games need victory conditions? Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:46 AM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]