How close is your family?

The Simmons family, three generations of whom live on Bardon Road, remains defiant in the face of claims their antisocial behaviour was partly responsible for the deaths of Fiona Pilkington and her mentally disabled teenage daughter, Francecca Hardwick, after years of taunts and physical attacks.

(Independent: "They were so evil towards Francecca" 29/09/09)

Wait a minute, three generations? Three generations of one family lived on the same street?

Maybe it's just my family, but I can't understand how it is that one family - three generations! - can live on the same street. My family doesn't even live in the same state, and if that, rarely in the same town. How is it possible that people don't move?

Part of this is historical. At the Glasgow Science Centre, there was a display where you could see which counties your surname was popular in the UK in 1881 and 1998. This was reported in the BBC in 2006. You can view the National Trust Names surname GB search here.

If you put in lesser known names, you'll see that people just don't move. For example, the name "Brankin" (thanks to Rhona Brankin MSP Midlothian) was only in a handful of sparse counties in 1881: Paisley, Motherwell, Preston and Oldham. In 1998 the name had spread, but not too far from the original four counties. In particular, they really stayed in Scotland, as evidenced by the fact that there's an MSP with that surname. (An English surname, ironically enough.)

It's this way with lots of names. And I even have anecdotal evidence of a family in Glasgow where, while not all are on the same street, all pretty much live in the same suburb of Glasgow -- one that if you put that surname in, comes up as the number 1 place in the UK for that name.

There was even a newspaper article talking about one family that all lived on one street. This is not a random isolated event -- it genuinely happens!

Maybe it's a bit rich coming from an American living in Scotland, but I just don't understand how a person can live a few doors down from their parents, siblings, cousins, etc.

But then, it does explain the fear of inbreeding in this country. You have to provide a birth certificate to get married here. Why? According to the clerk down at the Edinburgh courthouse, to prove you don't have the same parents.