From Lawpack's Trace Your Family Tree Kit.
Some genealogists trace everyone with a particular surname and, if they are willing to share and exchange information about it, they may belong to the Guild of One-Name Studies or 'GOONS' (Box G, 14 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7BA).
The Guild has about 1,800 members researching over 5,000 surnames plus variant spellings. A list of the families on which they are working is given in the Guild's Register of One-Name Studies, which is published annually (GOONS, 14th edn. 2000). The register is updated regularly on the Guild's excellent website www.one-name.org and further information can be obtained from the Guild's quarterly journal. Other 'one-name' searchers are listed in the Genealogical Research Directory and in the British Isles Genealogical Register.
There are also many family associations worldwide. Those which published some kind of periodical or newsletter are listed in Surname Periodicals: A World-Wide Listing of One-Name Genealogical Publications, I.J.Marker and K.E.Warth (GOONS, 1987). Others appear in Directory of Family Associations, E.P. Bentley (Baltimore, USA, 3rd edn. 1996).
A list of the Chiefs of Clans and Names in Scotland, with their addresses, is published annually in Whitaker's Almanack, J. Whitaker (A. & C. Black, London) and a list of the family surname organisations which have been dubbed 'Clans of Ireland' can be obtained from the Clans of Ireland Office, Grange Clare, Kilmeague, Naas, Co. Kildare, Republic of Ireland.
With all this activity you may think that there is little left to be done, but the great majority of people tracing their ancestors find that the work they are doing, at least in the early stages, is unique and has not been done before. After that there is quite likely to be an overlap with someone somewhere. If you deposit copies of the fruits of your labours at the Society of Genealogists as soon as you can, you are likely to make contacts and discover long-lost cousins much sooner than you think.
