Geography of Name
1841 Census: Distribution and Frequency
On the 1841 UK census 53,347 individuals are enumerated with the surname of Wood in the counties of England. Of the total, 6,376 resided in London and a scant 1502 resided in Essex, which implies fewer than 300 households. Twenty counties account for 90% of all individual with the surname Wood. The counties with the highest density of the surname Wood are Yorkshire (21%), Lancashire (12%), Middlesex/London (12.6%), Staffordshire (5.4%), and Kent (5%).
The distribution map shows a concentration of the Surname Wood in the North and in the Southeast. In the North, 45.4% of all individuals with the surname Wood resided in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire. In the Southeast, 23.2% of them resided in London (Middlesex), Kent, Sussex, and Essex. Although both concentrations exchanged residency with London, they were separated from each other by geography.
In the late 18th century, the Wood households of Essex, as a group, did not have immediate family connections with the Wood households in the North. A research priority is to determine if the two regions connect at an earlier date. Between the censuses of 1841 and 1881, the percent of all individuals with the surname Wood living in Essex dropped from 2.8% to 2.6%. The research implication is that the Wood family lines in Essex between 1750 and 1900 remained stable.
Distribution Map and Table for the surname Wood based on 1841 census of English Counties using your-family-history.com
Spelling Variations
On the 1841 census the surname Wood is potentially spelt sixteen different ways.
The distribution of Spelling Variations at a high level confirms that the Wood lines in the North and those in the Southeast are two different groups.
To reduce complexity, the table of Spelling Variations exclude the surname Wood.
A research challenge in Essex is to identify Wade households that are in fact Wood households and vice versa.
