Welcome! This is my personal site, which forms part of my membership of [The Guild of one-name studies](https://one-name.org) for my nominated Surname, Thornber.
This wiki[^1], will start to contain as much information that I have been able to find both online and offline, and includes various general genealogical Thornber related Information.
Taking on a One-Name Study requires me to make two main commitments to you: [^2] to paraphrase their website, then this is what I've signed up for:
1. I must respond to all enquiries [as] I have registered my study with the Guild of One-Name Studies.
2. I agree to collect all instances of that name wherever it is found, though I can work at my own speed with my own priorities.
Please note I do work, and as I'm starting out on my one-name study then I might not have all the information that you're looking for, but I will always try my best to help you out.
## Craig Thornber
The bedrock that I am using to build my wiki upon, is in many ways due to me standing on the shoulders of a giant, namely Craig Thornber, who has kindly allowed me to use the information on his excellent website [thornber.net](http://thornber.net).
Over many years he's done much time-consuming and excellent work into the Thornber Surname, by visiting numerous archives up and down the country. I promised him that I would include all of his original observations on this site that exist on his website, and you'll find them prefixed throughout my wiki site with the hashtag #CT-Observations. You can even search for his observations in the search box on this site.
He's done so much to help the genealogical study of the Thornber surname, and I am immensely grateful to him both for the work that he has done, and for also allowing me to build upon his work.
## Aims for this website
So, I’ll not simply be re-creating his website here, but I will build upon and expand it into the following areas:
- Using DNA analysis to validate the various Thornber family trees.
- Exploring how, when, and which Thornbers went to which different countries.
- Building upon Craig's initial research to bring it forward as much as I can, to say 1921, and also making use of any other records around that time e.g WW1, and the 1939 registration etc.
- Exploring other resources such as newspapers, assizes, immigration/emigration records, manorial records, trade directories etc. to try to bring out more of people’s lives in more detail. So, expanding the research using other primary/secondary resources that are available online, and in various archives, in effect.
- Trying to research the pile of unmatched Thornbers, that Craig has been unable to do.
- Reach out to living Thornbers from around the world, to try to find out family stories, or any genealogical information that they might be comfortable to share with me.
- I’d like to try, if it’s possible, to create an online Wiki (ta da!) so that anyone can access individual Thornber records, and therefore find out anything related to a specific person.
The next steps to start using this site, is to click on one of the following links:
[[Thornber Surname origins, frequency, and locations.]]
[[A one-name Study Size Estimation]]
[[UK Thornbers MOC]]
[[International Thornbers MOC]]
[[Thornber DNA Information MOC]]
[^1]: Sometimes you'll see me refer to my personal Wiki as a 'Digital Garden', which is a PKM-term, you can find out more about it here: [[Digital Garden]] and here: [[What is Personal Knowledge Management?]]
[^2]: https://one-name.org/getting-started-with-a-one-name-study/