Old Age - New Age - Any Age!!!

[bobloes]

Hi All

I have an ancestor whose surname was AGE. Having done a complete search on Scotland's People there are only three returns. Two are for births before 1750 and on is for the death of my GGG grandmother. If anyone has any information on that surname I would be grateful but is this a one off or is it common for a surname to (apparently) die out. Thanks

[WilmaM]

I ha a look at Freecen [not complete yet] and they only threw up 3 for the 1891 census
1 family:
Piece: RG12/128 Place: Pancras -London Enumeration District: 14
Civil Parish: St Pancras Ecclesiastical Parish: St Mary
Folio: 111 Page: 79 Schedule: 575
Address: St Mary's School
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
AGE Harry Head M M 40 Caretaker Of Schools(Em'ee) Buckinghamshire - North Crawley
AGE Eliza Wife M F 40 Caretaker Of Schools(Em'ee) London - St Pancras
AGE Eliza S. Dau - F 15 Needlewoman(Em'ee) Middlesex - Hendon

On the surface family Search seems to have hundreds of 'Ages' - but they all turn out to be variations - Egg, Hedges, Edge, Eggs etc
I checked the Irish Census too [1901 1911] but they threw up blanks too.

I could be that it's simply been a variation/corruption/misspelling that's happened - bearing in mind that up to 100 years ago many people couldn't read or write and 'correct' spelling was an alien concept!
People moving from one area or country to another had to contend with misinterpretations of an accent too.

Where did your GMother come from originally? did she perhaps come from Scandinavian or Shetland stock or furtehr afield?

As far as surnames dying out is concerned - it's surprisingly easy. My Father's surname has 'died' out as far as the Scots branches are concerned - no brothers, no sons only 1 male cousin. My husband & I manged to buck the trend of 1 son per generation by having 3 boys, so the M's live on here...

[Currie]

Hello Bobloes,

On the England/Wales FreeBMD site there are only about 18 surname ‘Age’ events 1837-1961. In that lot you’ll probably find people who married and died but were never born, and so on. There are over 11,000 for the surname ‘Ager’. On SP ‘Ager’ occurrences seem to outnumber ‘Age’ by at least 10:1.

Alan

[johnniegarve]

Wouldn't be a form of Algie? an old Glasgow name.

[bobloes]

Thanks indeed for your interest and suggestions.

I had not thought about looking outside of Scotland because my 4G mother was born and died in Cullen, Banff. It was only my 2G father Colin Age Garvock who finally moved away from Banff and settled in Mid Lothian. There is an entry in the 4G mother death record which states that her father was Colin Age but unfortunately there is no record of the marriage etc. Still I have managed to get back to the late 1700s. Cheers.

[WilmaM]

As she was from Cullen there coul dbe 2 explainations:
1. it's a Norse name [Doric sounds more Norwegian....]
2. it's T-name a nickname used in the fishing communities when the pool of names was small
see: http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/conte ... x.aspx?560

I had a look at http://www.anesfhs.org.uk/databank/miindex/ no hits for an Age, but I don't think the Cullen cemetery is covered .