Nason Family History / Genealogy This study will, in its initial and interim phases, focus on the origins of the surname NASON in England and its subsequent migration throughout the British Isles, into North America and other British colonies. There are at least two distinctly separate origins of the modern British incidences of the surname and in former British colonies the name is likely to have sprung from the older of those two origins. Today North America appears to contain the majority of Nason families world wide; its Nasons outnumber their British cousins 20:1. An empirically based measure suggests that the total British Nason population since the beginning of parish registers is less than 2,000. Despite that, the British genealogy remains significant because it appears to be the fount of the name now distributed across the Anglo-Saxon world. Within the British Isles there were, and to some extent still are, several geographically separate Nason centres; in Warwickshire and adjacent counties, in Southern Ireland, and in Essex, where the surname is believed to have a more recent origin in continental Europe. Latest research suggests that the surname Nason arrived in England circa 1400, probably in or near Warwickshire. The meaning and provenance of the name are still open to interpretation. There are two current views; one, that the surname is of the ‘nickname’ type, referring to a physical characteristic, and that it originated in a Romance-based culture; two,that the surname is of the patrynomic or font-name type. When the relationship between the various English and Irish Nason groups, and their descendants elsewhere, is satisfactorily understood, the study could move into its final phase, when the possible continental European origin of the surname could be fully explored. PLEASE READ THE 'GOALS' PAGE OF THE WEBSITE BEFORE APPLYING TO JOIN.