As one of 88 Canadian members of the Guild of One-Name Studies I receive the quarterly Journal of One-Name Studies. The full-colour July-September 2026 issue, brim-full of good information, just arrived in my mail-box.
As I don’t conduct a study, and can’t conveniently attend the in-person events like UK residents — 73% of the membership — the journal is my most valuable benefit.
Leaving aside the “ado”, here are the articles I found of interest :
The Private Life of a Family Bible. The story of a purloined treasure.
The Origin & Development of a Ricketts Paternal line:. Combines Y-chromosome DNA testing, parish records, and historical geography to trace a paternal lineage back to a single medieval founder.
Joseph Chicken, Businessman & Bigamist:.He abandoned his wife and two sons, emigrated to Australia and started a second family. Becoming wealthy, he eventually reconnected with his English relatives. I have Chicken ancestors from Cumberland where he is buried.
Book Review: Genealogy Methods & Techniques. Highly recommended by reviewer, and Guild Chair, Julie Goucher. Author Karen Cummings owns Pharos Tutors which was previously owned by Helen Osborn, author of Genealogy: Essential Research Methods.
Navigating the Future: Proceedings of the Annual Conference 2026. A collection of one-page summaries of presentations given at the Guild annual conference last April. Four papers were devoted principally to AI, “not because it was viewed as a solution to every problem, but because it is already becoming part of the everyday toolkit of family historians.”
DNA for your One-Name Study. The article ends with “The most consistent complaint I hear about DNA testing for genealogy is: “I wish I had done it sooner.”
Shepheard Families in South Devon. Canadian genealogist Wayne Shepheard does a deep dive into the statistics of his family surname and variants. Beware drawing conclusions from patchy data.
Like many genealogy organizations, Guild membership is declining, down 3.5% in the past year.