Imposing Territories

These previous entries give some idea of the imposing territory that constitutes the direct ancestry of Charles Albert Eldridge. One thing seems for sure though, the Eldridge, or at least the Coulter family is a thoroughly southern English production.

It is perhaps worth pausing to note also that whilst the 1891 census identified 3,504 distinct Eldridge families, by 1998, this number had risen only moderately to 4105. By 1920, the number of Eldridge families in the USA had already reached 3,614. In 1911, there were also 364 Eldridge families in Canada. Numerous Eldridges also emigrated to Australia and New Zealand, for which statistics have not been located. Many of these migrations are however recorded in Robert and Karen Eldridge’s one-name study of the Eldridge family at: http://members.iinet.net.au/~rgkje/.

So, strange, as it may seem, the majority of Eldridges, as with many other British families, no longer live in Britain at all. On the other hand, Britain was, for the most part, not where their lines began either, a point fairly much confirmed by recent DNA studies. Largely in tune with the historical record, such research confirms the Anglo-Saxon and Jutish origins of the population of Kent, but suggests also wide-ranging intermingling with the older Celtic and non Celtic populations, finally putting to bed theories of mass displacement and genocide that have been aired previously. For the most part though, their antecedents lay across the North Sea in continental Europe, and, particularly in northern Germany and southern Denmark.

Copied from: 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3711040/How-British-Genetic-study-reveals-Yorkshire-Anglo-Saxon-UK-East-Midlands-Scandinavian.html.