Mapping Surnames

Another surname mapping service came to my attention today via lifehacker.com. It is run by the dynastree.com online genealogy website and covers the USA and Canada.

Here is their distribution of Goodstadt:

They seem to be using similar sources principally the phone book. This isn’t very impressive but might help give leads if reaching dead ends in research. Here is for example what they list as similar names:
Gedstad, Gutstadt, Godsted, Gedestad, Goodstat, Gautestad, Gjedsted, Guttstadt.

There are many examples of mapping service. The National Trust Names covers the UK in 1881 and 1998 and produced by the Public Profiler. To search however requires a minimum of 100 people with the surname on UK Electoral Register in 1998.

Others like Roots Maps are orientated towards the sale of software or images and have databases limited to the most popular surnames. A surname like Goodstadt does not appear.

In the end I am sure that this will be gradually expanded to include less common names. It is for such surnames that this type of information has real value giving a visual guide as to where to focus on looking. But until such times as there are tools which can map from explicit, complete and global sources such maps provide little concrete information.