Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland. Rev. ed.

Melvin Baker is an archivist and historian at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, and the co-editor of Dictionary of Newfoundland and
Labrador Biography.

This revised edition of a book originally published in 1977 is an
excellent starting point for those interested in the genealogical
history of Newfoundland and Labrador. Using the names found in the
Official List of Electors 1955, Seary provides a comprehensive list of
names, the localities with which they were linked in the archival
records of the province, and the European origins of each surname. For
example, the surname “Coaker” is a “variant of a surname of
England, Coker, from the English place name Coker (Somerset).” The
Newfoundland usages of Coaker are given with the location and source
provided (e.g., “John of St. John’s, 1705”) and the modern status
of the name (e.g., mainly at St. John’s [in 1978]). On a scholarly
level, Family Names provides a detailed picture of Newfoundland society
and settlement starting in the early 17th century. This attractive
edition is a welcome tribute to the scholarship of the late E.R. Seary,
a pioneer in the field of Newfoundland studies during the 1950s and
1960s.