User:Dontiknowyou

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dontiknowyou
User dontiknowyou is a member of the Guild of One Name Studies. On Family Tree in FamilySearch this user has made over 13,000 new person profiles and attached over 100,000 sources. Most contributions are on German surnames Centner, Czentner, Jentner, Gentner, Genthner, Sentner, Tzentner, Zehentner, Zehntner, Zentner; also English surnames Clough, Verry, Yarrall. This user is especially interested in breaking through intercontinental immigrant "brick walls".

Intercontinental immigrant brick walls
Tables in this section show data from FamilySearch. Indexed historical records divided by Family Tree profiles gives a very rough estimate of the completeness of a surname study. The estimate is not intuitive. A large ratio usually means many profiles have yet to be created. However, a small ratio does not mean the study is complete. There are surnames for which many profiles exist but almost no historical records have been indexed by FamilySearch; in this case the ratio is less than 1. It has been my experience with some rare surnames that when all historical records are linked to profiles, there are about 7 records per profile. That is, the sweet spot is 7.

Clough in British Colonial America
At least 6 men named John Clough are known to have immigrated to British Colonial America in the early 17th century, departing from ports in England. For the most part their birth places and families of origin are not known. The surname Clough is not rare and has many known variants. Numerous villages in Ireland and England are named Clough and in northern England the word clough means a steep sided valley.

In England there are many candidate families of origin. Attaching to Family Tree profiles all indexed historical records of men named John Clough (or variant spelling) in England circa 1550 to 1650 should help to find these families. Some of this work has been done but there is more. Y-DNA analysis may also help, and on FamilyTreeDNA two projects have Clough participants: Northumberland and Clewis-Clough.

By this table FamilySearch Family Tree has over 40,000 profiles with neither standardized place names nor historical records attached. However, the worldwide number of records divided by profiles is near the "sweet spot". This suggests nearly all profiles relating to this surname already exist in Family Tree, but most profiles have not been reworked since the mass import circa 2012 of legacy trees into Family Tree. This situation begs for a community project. Many hands make light work.


 * John Clough (about 1613 – 26 July 1691) of Salisbury L2VM-FFH. In the early 17th century a young single man named John Clough was among the first English settlers in what is now Salisbury, Massachusetts.  His descendants have a large genealogical society.  In early 2020 on Family Tree almost no profiles on John Clough's descendancy tree had historical records attached. By early 2021 that task was nearly complete for at least the first 4 generations.  With so many hints resolved the tree now is much more stable.


 * John Clough (about 1660 – Deceased) GCWR-5TF is father of Martha Clough (1891-, born in Salisbury).


 * John Prester Clough (13 January 1587 – 18 May 1642) GW7R-1NQ evidently immigrated to America with some of his children, who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.
 * His grandson John Clough (November 1657 – Deceased) of Charlestown and Boston has records to attach; see his descendancy tree.

Verry and Yarrall in New Zealand
Verry and Yarrall families were among the first immigrants to New Zealand; there is good documentation of these families in New Zealand but their origins in England are unknown. Numerous genealogists have worked on tracing back the Verry line, so far without success.

The number of profiles in England, New Zealand, and the United States combined do not approach the number of profiles worldwide because most profiles lack standardized place names. Place names not standardized causes undercounting and, more importantly, poor search results.

Forebears.io reports that today the surname Verry is most numerous in the United States, France, Indonesia, and New Zealand. It is likely of French origin. Yarrall is most numerous in New Zealand, rare in England and Australia.

Verry tasks
Merge duplicate profiles for Elisha Verry (before 9 January 1738 – Deceased), then merge duplicates for his wife Mary.

Standardize placenames and dates. Standardizing greatly improves the quality of hints and helps to resolve duplicates and improve searching. To find profiles in need of standardizing, on Family Tree search for the exact surname and a country where the surname is not known. Try Verry in Argentina

Look for families of origin of Verry immigrants in the United States: John W. Verry (1808 – 9 March 1862) and his older children.

Look for the family of origin of two later settlers from England in New Zealand: the children of Richard Verry (1 October 1854 – 24 February 1928) could be cousins of the earlier Verry settlers.

Verry goals
Find the English family of origin of early New Zealand immigrant Ann Verry (1817 – 9 April 1906), wife of Thomas Yarrall.

Verify the English family of origin of early New Zealand immigrant Thomas Verry (April 1798 – 28 June 1861), which is questionable.