Clafton Name Study

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Worldwide
Surnames/tags: Clafton Clafton_Name_Study

Contents 1 About the Project 2 Aims 3 Strategy 4 How to Join 5 Clafton Name Study Template and Category 6 Emigration Template and Sticker 7 What You Can Do 8 Membership 9 Research Pages 10 Related Surnames and Surname Variants 11 Records Incorrectly Showing Clafton Surname 12 Families Adopting/Abandoning Clafton Surname 13 Clafton Known Distributions 14 Clafton Statistics 15 Sources

About the Project

Hello! Please read this, especially if you have Clafton surnames in your family tree and/or an interest in the Clafton surname, regardless of whether or not you are active on Wikitree. I need your help with the Clafton Name Study.

The Clafton Name Study project serves as a collaborative platform to collect information on the Clafton surname to help make it a valuable reference point for other genealogists who are researching or have an interest in the Clafton name.

If you are active on Wikitree, I hope that researchers like you will:

• join the study; and/or
• Help research new and existing Clafton profiles.

If you are not active on Wikitree, I will gladly accept family tree information and associated research material and create the profiles myself, for which I will give credit to you (or not, if you prefer). Please contact me via steve (at) clafton (dot) net

As a One Name Study, this project is not limited to persons who are related biologically. Individual studies can be used to branch out the research into specific methods and areas of interest, such as geographically (England Claftons), by time period (18th Century Claftons), or by topic (Clafton DNA, Clafton Occupations, Clafton Statistics). These studies may also include a number of family branches which have no immediate link with each other. Some researchers may even be motivated to go beyond the profile identification and research stage to compile fully sourced, single-family histories of some of the families they discover through this name study project.

Also see the related surnames and surname variants.

Aims

1. Collect all people who used the surname Clafton at some point in their lives and create Wikitree profiles for them, including the Clafton name study sticker template and category. This includes spouses who married into the Clafton surname and people who adopted or abandoned the surname.

2. Connect Clafton profiles to each other and to the greater Wikitree, including merging duplicates.

3. Gain insight into Clafton population centres, migration patterns and name evolution.

Strategy

The project is currently in the collection phase and is following this general strategy, which will be reviewed and changed as and when necessary:

1. Focussing on the period from 1800 to now
   1. Scanning censuses in turn from oldest to most recent
      1. Scanning each major region in turn - US, UK and Australia
   2. Scanning marriage, birth & death records (separately) from oldest to most recent in 10 year blocks
      1. Scanning each major region in turn - US, UK and Australia
   3. Scanning all except the above records in turn from oldest to most recent in 10 year blocks
      1. Scanning each major region in turn - US, UK and Australia
2. Focussing on the pre-1800 period
   1. Following a more careful approach appropriate to pre-census times
      1. Scanning each major region in turn - US, UK and Australia
3. Focussing on other regions depending on language barriers

A series of templates have been created for recording the different events in peoples lives. These are undergoing a process of continuous improvement, so a final pass through all profiles is envisaged to bring earlier profiles up to the current specifications for:

1. Templates
2. National and regional project requirements

How to Join

To join the Clafton Name Study, first start out by browsing our current research pages to see if there is a specific study ongoing that fits your interests. If so, feel free to add your name to the Membership list below, post an introduction comment on the specific team page, and then dive right in!

If a research page does not yet exist for your particular area of interest, please contact the Name Study Coordinator: Steve Clafton for assistance.

Once you are ready to go, you can also show your project affiliation with the ONS Member Sticker:

Clafton Name Study Template and Category

To include a profile in the project, add the One Name Study sticker template to the Biography section, immediately below the ==Biography== heading, which will add the category and sticker automatically:

If known, please add a country of birth subcategory, eg:

Current main countries:

• Australia - including both prior to and post Federation
• Canada - including both prior to and post Confederation and Dominion
• England - including both prior to and post UK
• Wales - including both prior to and post UK
• Scotland - including both prior to and post UK
• Ireland - including both prior to and post Partition
• Northern Ireland - only after Partition
• Russia - including Tsardom of Russia, Russian Empire, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and modern day Russia
• USA - including both prior to and post Independence

See this link for a full list of Clafton country names so far.

I expect it is only worth setting up a specific state or locality if there is a concentration of Claftons in that area that you intend to make a study of. Examples of how to structure can be found at the Categorization section of the One Name Study Project.

Emigration Template and Sticker

To indicate emigration, add the Migrating Ancestor template to the Biography section, immediately preceding a paragraph describing the emigration (who emigrated, origin & destination localities, departing & arriving dates, ship name if appropriate, etc.) which will add the sticker automatically:

Country flags can be found at Space:Flags. No need to ensure flags historically match emigration dates.

What You Can Do

1. Add Clafton to your list of followed tags. That way you'll see all our discussions in G2G and current activity on Clafton profiles.
2. Add the Clafton Name Study template (with/without country of birth subcategory) to any Clafton profiles you manage, including spouses who married into the Clafton name.
3. Add migration templates to the profiles of Claftons who emigrated to another country and maintain the Space:Emigration, Clafton Name Study page to match.
4. Identify families and individuals (other than through marriage) who adopted the Clafton surname in place of their birth name, or vice versa, and record them in the Families Adopting/Abandoning Clafton Surname section.
5. Work cooperatively together with other Clafton profile managers to create the best Clafton tree possible.
6. Search out original rather than derivative documentation and add in-line sources to Clafton profiles.
7. Write comprehensive, well-sourced biographies.
8. Check for duplicates and request merges.
9. Look for opportunities to connect Clafton profiles to each other and the greater Wikitree.

Membership

• Coordinator - Steve Clafton
• Member - You

Research Pages

Here are some of the current research pages included in the study. I'll be working on them, and could use your help!

• Space:Clafton_Name_Study (this page)
• Space:Emigration, Clafton Name Study
• Clafton Name Study category page

Related Surnames and Surname Variants

This study is primarily about the Clafton surname, and includes people who have changed their surname to Clafton, whether by marriage or just by adopting the name.

There are a number of surnames similar to Clafton although these are not currently included in the study:

• Clacton
• Claffton
• Claflin
• Claftin
• Clapton
• Claston
• Claxton
• Clayton
• Claton
• Clanton
• Clifton
• Clyfton
• Clofton
• Clopton
• Clufton
• Klafton especially Russia

And even:

• Claughton - which is an interesting case, as Claughton and Clafton are pronounced identically in the Yorkshire accent from where they appear to originate. This is the most likely confusion to occur, especially in regions and eras with high levels of illiteracy, where names were spoken and spelling was up to the documenter.

In my experience with transcribed records so far, Clafton is most likely to be mistranscribed as Clapton, Clayton and Clifton, most likely as these are the most common and best known variations. Claston is more likely as a misheard version due to the similarity of f and s sound, plus the propensity for old document writers to use “f” to represent “s”.

In USA records, Claflin is prominent, but is regularly mistranscribed as Claftin and Clafton. When encountering Claftons in search indexes, it is necessary to check the original document image (if available) to ensure it is not a mistranscribed Claflin or similar.

Records Incorrectly Showing Clafton Surname

The following people have appeared in original records (note: not modern transcriptions of original records) using the Clafton surname, but have not appeared to use the surname in any other records, thus the spelling is either obscured or assumed to be accidental on the part of the original documenter:

• Family of Isabella Clafton (abt 1801-) and 10 children in the 1841 England Census (mistranscribed as Clalton) - may be Claughton^[1]

• Family of George Clafton (abt 1831- son of Isabella above), spouse Emma A. and 2 children in the 1861 England Census - may be Claughton^[2]

• Family of James Byren Clafton (abt 1826-), spouse Betsy and 1 child in the 1861 England Census - may be Claftin^[3]

• Family of Abraham Clafton (abt 1819-), spouse Elizabeth and mother Ellen in the 1871 England Census - may be Clifton^[4]

• Lydia Clafton (abt 1875-) and Isabel Clafton (abt 1888-), living with Malcolm family in the 1901 England Census - may be Clayton^[5]

• Fanny Clafton (abt 1865-), living with Manor House staff in the 1891 England Census - appears to be Fanny Violette Clapton (1864-)^[6]

• Thomas Clafton (abt 1865-), born in Castleford, Yorkshire, boarding with the family of Henry & Mary Sutcliffe in the 1911 England Census - appears to be Thomas Claughton (1865-)^[7]

• Charles F. Clafton (30th Jan 1895-) and Ada Clafton (19 Sep 1894-), and possibly two offspring in the 1939 England Register - appears to be Clapton^[8]

• William H. Clafton (7 Dec 1892-), Mary A. E. Clafton (13 Jul 1896-), Joan G. (Clafton) Cressell, Iris (Clafton) Hodgson and possibly two more offspring in the 1939 England Register - appears to be Clapton^[9]

• Henry Charles Clafton (abt 1851-) and Maud Leonora Sanderson (abt 1879-) marriage banns 23 Jan 1898 - appears to be Clifton^[10]

• Barbara Lou Clafton (22 Jun 1941-) and her mother Deloris Evelyn Clafton in the Indiana, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1907-1944 - appears to be Crafton^[11]

Families Adopting/Abandoning Clafton Surname

Spouses adopting Clafton surnames through marriage are included in the study (as previously stated), but a special place is reserved for those people who were born with a different surname and changed their surname to Clafton for reasons other than marriage. These people are included in the study, and their dual naming acknowledged:

Claughton to Clafton:

• • Moses (Claughton) Clafton prior to 1795
  • John Clafton (1816-) prior to 1842, possibly related to emigration to USA
  • Family of George (Claughton) Clafton soon after 1851

Claughton temporary use:

• • Joseph Clafton only around the time of the 1871 England Census, an attempt to hide?

Claughton use as a middle name:

• • Joseph Claughton Keighley (abt.1869-) attribution of paternity?

Clafton use as middle name:

• • George Clafton Keighley attribution of grandfather’s paternity?
  • Joseph Clafton Claughton (1761-1793) indication of name change?
  • Nathaniel Clafton Claughton (1788-1837) indication of name change?

Clafton interpreted as Claughton, most likely due to illiteracy:

• • Sarah (Clafton) Drake (1839-) on the birth certificate of her daughter Charlotte Drake (1858-)

Clafton Known Distributions

These are the locations of significant numbers of Clafton families:

• Yorkshire, England, UK and especially the towns of Ossett and Dewsbury and others surrounding the greater Wakefield district appear to be the main origin of the Clafton surname.
• US and Canada and especially Grand Rapids, Minnesota, with some immigration via New York. There seems to have been a number of border crossings to and from Canada in the late 1800s.
• Australia holds at least two families of Clafton (one established in Perth, Western Australia, the other in Sydney, New South Wales) that likely immigrated from the UK in the 1800s. To date no genealogical connection has been established between the families.
• Russia, especially Archangel in the high North West appears to have had a British expat community of Clafton families for several generations in the 1800s.

See the Clafton Name Study category page for lists of profiles involved in the regions, plus the many profiles not yet assigned a country of birth.

Clafton Statistics

Search Provider:	Wikitree	FamilySearch	Ancestry	FindAGrave
9 Sep 2020	138	4,048	7,124	65
10 Dec 2023	637	4,466	7,883	93
It is important to note that the numbers provided are estimations only and do not reflect unique records for unique individuals; a single person may be reflected in multiple records. In the case of Ancestry, these numbers also include the number of images and family trees in which the name appears. In the case of Wikitree, it is a profile count that includes only those born as Clafton, not those that married into the name.

For a few years I had been tinkering with my family tree on Wikitree, and I once posted a question about a group of Claftons on the G2G forum, and after discussion someone answered that there weren’t many of them so why not record them all. When Covid began and I was looking for something to do, that answer came back to me, and so the Clafton name study began. So, thanks to COVID-19, and its related lockdowns, for creating opportunities to pursue genealogy in general and this name study in particular. Also thanks to genealogy for providing such an absorbing and useful pastime, and Wikitree for being a wonderful, collaborative and flexible environment to ‘do’ genealogy, and finally thanks to that G2G user who planted the seed.

Penned on a reflective Sunday afternoon when the weather was way too bad to go outside, and so I was penned inside reminiscent of a Covid lockdown. SteveC, 10th Dec 2023.

Sources

1. ↑ Ancestry. 1841 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 1313; Book: 4; Civil Parish: Guiseley; County: Yorkshire; Enumeration District: 30; Folio: 36; Page: 18; Line: 10; GSU roll: 464269.
2. ↑ Ancestry. 1861 England Census, Class: RG 9; Piece: 3421; Folio: 23; Page: 6; GSU roll: 543129.
3. ↑ Ancestry. 1861 England Census, Class: RG 9; Piece: 2453; Folio: 16; Page: 26; GSU roll: 542973.
4. ↑ Ancestry. 1871 England Census, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1871 England Census; Class: RG10; Piece: 1862; Folio: 74; Page: 5; GSU roll: 830849.
5. ↑ Ancestry. 1901 England Census, Class: RG13; Piece: 4300; Folio: 33; Page: 22.
6. ↑ Ancestry. 1891 England Census, The National Archives of the UK (TNA); Kew, Surrey, England; Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891; Class: RG12; Piece: 615; Folio: 91; Page: 38; GSU roll: 6095725.
7. ↑ Ancestry. 1911 England Census, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA) Series RG14, 1911, Piece: 28338, Schedule: 88.
8. ↑ Ancestry. 1939 England and Wales Register, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/5086J.
9. ↑ Ancestry. 1939 England and Wales Register, The National Archives; Kew, London, England; 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/6050C.
10. ↑ Ancestry. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932, London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p70/mrk/022.
11. ↑ Ancestry. Indiana, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1907-1944. Indiana Archives and Records Administration, Indianapolis, Indiana. Registration Year: 1941, Certificate Number: 30366, Roll number: 60871.IDX.002_I1415091, Volume Range: 60-64.