English Family History
- English Name Meaning
- English: from Old English Englisc. The word had originally distinguished Angles (see Engel) from Saxons and other Germanic peoples in the British Isles, but by the time surnames were being acquired it no longer had this meaning. Its frequency as an English surname is somewhat surprising. It may have been commonly used in the early Middle Ages as a distinguishing epithet for an Anglo-Saxon in areas where the culture was not predominantly English--for example the Danelaw area, Scotland, and parts of Wales--or as a distinguishing name after 1066 for a non-Norman in the regions of most intensive Norman settlement. However, explicit evidence for these assumptions is lacking, and at the present day the surname is fairly evenly distributed throughout the country. Irish: see Golightly.
Source: Dictionary of American Family Names ©2013, Oxford University Press
- 1,904,390 Historical Documents with English on Ancestry
- 638,194 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
- 375,738 Census and Voter Lists
- 99,115 Military Records
- 48,822 Immigration Records
- 742,521 Member Trees
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Number of English families
 455 - 908  152 - 454 |
 1 - 151  |
from the 1891 England and Wales Census Data
Number of English families
|
169 - 336 57 - 168 |
1 - 56 |
from the 1851 Canada Census Data
English census records
You can see how English families moved over time by selecting different Census years.
Census records can tell you little-known facts about your ancestors such as birthplace, occupation and value of personal estate.
from the New York Passengers List
Click on a place to view English immigration records
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry. You can find out where the majority of the English families were living before they immigrated to the U.S and learn where to focus your search for foreign records.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival, and destination.
from the Canadian Passenger Lists
Click on a circle in the chart to view English immigration records
You can find out when most of the English families immigrated to Canada. You can focus your search to immigration records dating from that era.
Immigration records can tell you an ancestor's name, ship name, port of departure, port of arrival and destination.
from 1881 CA Census Data
English census records
Census records can offer a lot of little known facts about your English ancestors, such as occupation.
Occupation can tell you about your ancestors' social status and economic status.
Did the Englishes fight in a war? Military records can tell you a lot
about your ancestors including birthplace, occupation and even physical descriptions.
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