the surname history profiler gives a fascinating look at the distribution of a surname across britain and how that distribution has changed between 1881 and 1998.

it comes as no surprise to me that most of the darbyshires are concentrated around lancashire. that’s what my family have always known. no one in southern england can spell the name correctly; go north west however and people have heard of the name and not just the misspelt county.

and by 1998 they have spread out across most of northern england and north wales too, but still with a hotspot in lancashire.

my darbyshires all come from birmingham though. the thing that has surprised me most when researching my family history is not finding a link back to lancashire. i thought i’d got the family traced back to yorkshire at one point but when i stepped back another generation i found them back in birmingham again.