Where it all began...

The starting-points for my study of family history were a few pages in two family Bibles containing details of some ancestors I'd been told about, and a few unfamiliar names which needed further research in order to fit them into the family tree.  When the 1881 census became freely available online (remember that breakthrough moment?) I decided to collect all the CLOSEs in Lancashire in 1881 since it was becoming evident that although I had no siblings or 1st cousins, there were a good many CLOSEs more distantly related to me.  

I made a couple of extended visits to the Lancashire record office and Manchester central library (over 200 miles from home) to trawl through other census years and parish registers on microfilm.  If I'd only waited another 15 years or so I could have found most of these images indexed and accessible from the comfort of my own home! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.😩

Soon I reluctantly had to expand my study of Lancashire CLOSEs beyond the county boundaries when I discovered (shock, horror) that my 3g-grandfather came from Yorkshire!

When Google was still something of a novelty, one of the first things I used it for was to search for my maternal grandmother's maiden name. Up came a link to the Guild of One-Name Studies, which led to a very useful exchange of information - both the surname researcher and I learning new things about the family from one another.  Aha, thought I, perhaps I could become an official one-namer for the surname CLOSE ... and one thing led to another.  



So here we are, committed to (eventually) researching every occurrence of CLOSE (and variants, CLOSS, KLOSS, KLOSZ ....) worldwide.  The people I've researched so far (mainly UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand) can be found on the close.one-name.net website, but there's still much to be done and teamwork is needed if the study is to progress at anything more than snail-pace.  

I welcome suggested corrections or additions to the website, and am happy to collaborate with others who have an interest in the CLOSE/CLOSS surname. There's a 'contact us' link on the website.



Location: Pontypridd, UK

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