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, Crandall, Verry, Yarrall. This user is especially interested in breaking through intercontinental immigrant "brick walls".

Intercontinental immigrant brick walls
Surname tables on this page show data from FamilySearch. The ratio of indexed historical records to Family Tree profiles gives a 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. A very small ratio usually means a Family Tree contributor has done a lot of work but FamilySearch has not yet indexed many historical records. Often the contributor is working directly with images on FamilySearch ahead of indexing.

Experience with several American immigrant surnames has been that when all indexed historical records are linked to profiles, there are about 7 records per profile. That is, the sweet spot is 7.

Clough
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. Counts as of March 2021 unless annotated otherwise.

Location is any event place. For records it is not exact; for profiles it is exact. FamilySearch Search and Find tool behavior make this difference necessary.

R/P is records ÷ profiles.

%F = percent of profiles with same surname father, a rough measure of tree completion. This is calculated by: a = Find Clough exact profiles, b = Find Clough exact profiles with father Clough exact, b ÷ a.  Where married women keep their maiden surnames, %F will approach 100. Where married women take their husband's surname %F will approach 75%.

Profile exact matches include wildcards: Clough*, Clow*, Cluff*. The * extends matches to records with combined surnames (very common on obituaries) and obsolete spellings (eg Cloughe).

Notes

Father to child surname changes:
 * Clow to Clough 300
 * Clough to Clow 371
 * Cluff to Clow 1
 * Clow to Cluff 3

3/2021: By this table FamilySearch Family Tree has over 40,000 profiles with surname Clough but 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.

9/2022: Wow, a lot of progress has been achieved in the standardizing of event place names;  this greatly assists work on Family Tree. Meanwhile, profiles count grew 0.7% and records count grew 8.3%, an order of magnitude faster.

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.

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.

Heads of tree in Massachusetts:


 * John Clough (about 1613-1691) of Salisbury L2VM-FFH. A young single man named John Clough was among the first English settlers in what is now Salisbury, Massachusetts.  He has a very large descendancy society, The John Clough 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 Prester Clough (13 January 1587 – 18 May 1642) supposedly immigrated to America with at least two of his children, who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. He apparently is a fabrication, but the founders of Watertown do include a Clough:
 * Elizabeth Clough (-1662) MGC8-J47


 * John Clough (about 1621 – 26 May 1691) K644-TGB in Boston.


 * John Clough (about 1635 – Deceased) MKW9-XBV in Boston.


 * John Clough (about 1660 – Deceased) GCWR-5TF is father of Martha Clough (1691-, born in Salisbury).


 * John Clough (about 1750 – Deceased) MKCZ-49W married in Boston in 1769.

Heads of tree in Virginia:


 * Reverend John Clough (– 15 February 1684) KZML-ZRB.


 * George Clough (2 April 1704 – Deceased) LZFJ-7SL parents unknown.


 * Richard Clough (23 July 1607 – about 1671) L11P-LSZ born in England, children born in Virginia, but evidence scant.

Veterans of the Revolutionary War:
 * Aaron Clough
 * Abner Clough
 * David Clough
 * Humphrey Clough
 * Joseph Clough

Recorded surnames that may be variants:
 * Clow, 161 records; some are at least deviants (transient spelling variations)

Verry (and Yarrall in New Zealand)
An alternate spelling of Verry is Verrij; FamilySearch exact matching does not distinguish these spellings. In North America Verry may be spelled Very and Vary.

Verry on FamilySearch: {| class="wikitable" ! Birth place             || Records               !! Profiles           !! R ÷ P             !! Trees          !! Comment
 * England                || align="right"|   3733 || align="right"|  483 || align="right"| 7.7 || align="right"|  || Verry only, lots to do
 * France                 || align="right"|   2320 || align="right"|  231 || align="right"| 10.0|| align="right"|  || lots to do here
 * Netherlands            || align="right"|    508 || align="right"|  160 || align="right"| 3.2 || align="right"|  || +Verrij
 * New Zealand            || align="right"|    869 || align="right"|  101 || align="right"| 8.6 || align="right"|  || nearly complete
 * British Colonial America|| align="right"|    337 || align="right"|   74 || align="right"| 4.6 || align="right"| || Verry only; for now ignore Very, Vary
 * Canada                 || align="right"|    163 || align="right"|   33 || align="right"| 4.9 || align="right"|  || nearly complete
 * United States          || align="right"|   9707 || align="right"|  712 || align="right"| 13.6|| align="right"|  || progress
 * Other                  || align="right"|    183 || align="right"|  664 || align="right"| 0.3 || align="right"|  || Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary
 * New Zealand            || align="right"|    869 || align="right"|  101 || align="right"| 8.6 || align="right"|  || nearly complete
 * British Colonial America|| align="right"|    337 || align="right"|   74 || align="right"| 4.6 || align="right"| || Verry only; for now ignore Very, Vary
 * Canada                 || align="right"|    163 || align="right"|   33 || align="right"| 4.9 || align="right"|  || nearly complete
 * United States          || align="right"|   9707 || align="right"|  712 || align="right"| 13.6|| align="right"|  || progress
 * Other                  || align="right"|    183 || align="right"|  664 || align="right"| 0.3 || align="right"|  || Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary
 * Canada                 || align="right"|    163 || align="right"|   33 || align="right"| 4.9 || align="right"|  || nearly complete
 * United States          || align="right"|   9707 || align="right"|  712 || align="right"| 13.6|| align="right"|  || progress
 * Other                  || align="right"|    183 || align="right"|  664 || align="right"| 0.3 || align="right"|  || Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary
 * Other                  || align="right"|    183 || align="right"|  664 || align="right"| 0.3 || align="right"|  || Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary
 * Other                  || align="right"|    183 || align="right"|  664 || align="right"| 0.3 || align="right"|  || Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary

Most counts are from November 2021; worldwide counts are current as of March 2022.

Yarrall on FamilySearch:

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, in that order. It is likely of French origin, but see also Verrij in the Netherlands. Per Forebears.io, Yarrall is most numerous in New Zealand, rare in England and Australia, but variant spellings are possible.

Goals
Try to link American Verry and Yarrall family trees to trees in New Zealand or England.

Tasks
Add or correct standardized place names, especially for cemeteries. Instructions on FS Help Center.

Standardize place names and dates on person profiles. 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

After standardizing, work Family Tree hints, attaching historical records to trees.

Look through attached historical records and work any unfinished attachments. This finds new clues, makes the tree stronger, and links the tree to other trees. Best practice is to include every person with the surname, and their parents, spouses, and children, but not in-laws. This finds all "edges" of the tree. At dead ends, eg., at the head of a tree, "follow" that profile. This makes the edges easier to find.

New Zealand
In New Zealand there are at least 3 separate lines of immigrant families with surname Verry.

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 uncertain or unknown. Numerous genealogists have worked on tracing back the Verry line, so far without success.

Find parents for:
 * George Verry 1833 – 1908 GCWL-QWM
 * Mary Jane Verry 1857 – 1920 GCW2-NG8
 * Alice Verry January 1874 – 1874 GCW2-75P
 * Grace Agnes Verry 1902 – 1986 LRP8-TT7
 * George Nelson Verry 1907 – Deceased LTQD-SZK
 * Alexander Francis Verry 1919 – 8 December 1989 GCJT-W1Z
 * Thomas Robert Verry 26 March 1926 – 7 March 1981 GCJD-7Q8

See New Zealand Genealogy for many finding aids.

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

Find parents of:
 * Naby Verry, July 1766 – Deceased MFB9-M6B
 * Joseph Verry 15 June 1788 – 16 July 1871 K4NN-XX2

Fill out family of:
 * Joseph Michael Levere 15 January 1882 – 16 September 1968 MWGM-MY3; immigrant from Portugal to Rhode Island, named Very or Verry in early records but not related to the very large Verry family in Rhode Island.  Over time his family's surname became Levere.
 * Any Very/Verry in Rhode Island or Massachusetts; watch for duplicate profiles and conflated profiles that need to be split.
 * The Greek Verry family in Manitoba Canada and Illinois.

Also:
 * McVerry

Genealogy research:
 * The Verry Connection, A New England Immigrant Kinship Network, The American Genealogist, v. 72 (1997): 29-299.

England
Build trees of English families named Verry and Yarrall, and try to link them to each other.

Among the earliest settlers from England in New Zealand were putative descendants of John Verry 1770–1820. Expand the family in England.

Two later settlers from England in New Zealand are descendants of Richard Verry (1 October 1854 – 24 February 1928). Could this family be related to the earlier Verry settlers? Expand the family in England.

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

Find the English family of origin of early New Zealand immigrant Ann Verry (1817 – 9 April 1906), wife of Thomas Yarrall. It may be that she is not a Verry at all.

John Verrie 1628–1669 of Hereford, England has many descendants with Family Tree hints: see his descendancy tree.

Find parents of:
 * William Michael Verry 14 August 1835 – 2 March 1906 L8TK-C9X