Surnames and migrations. The Barcelona area (1451-1900)

The project is funded by the Spanish FPU program (AP 2010- 5699) and is part of the larger Advanced Grand Project 'Five Centuries of Marriages' (ERC-2010-AdG_20100407)Catalan onomastics, and specifically the evolution of surnames, has been conditioned by several demographic, political and social processes that have imparted singular characteristics over the course of centuries. The combination of these factors resulted in a significant number of homonymic surnames, making it impossible to correctly identify their geographical origin based solely on linguistic criteria. As a possible solution to this, this paper proposes the use of the cluster analysis method to introduce a further criterion for their identification and classification. Historical registers of Marriage License Books from the Diocese of Barcelona are the source selected to achieve this goal. These records, which collect information on more than two million surnames, were maintained between 1451 and 1905 in a set of 291 books (Llibres d'Esposalles) kept at the archives of the Barcelona Cathedral