The map above shows the distribution of Garveys as listed in the LDS National Index of the 1881 British Census. The color of a county indicates how many Garveys were listed as residing there. Bright green indicates the counties that had the largest number of Garveys. Lighter shades of green indicate counties containing fewer Garveys, while dark gray and light gray indicate counties with even fewer Garveys. Counties that contained less than 20 Garveys are not colored - therefore the map only shows where 85% of the Garveys were living at that time.
There were 1100 Garveys listed in the 1881 National Index. One quarter of all the Garveys were in Lancashire County, while Yorkshire and London together accounted for another quarter. My best guess would be that the map of Garveys in Britain in 1881 is probably a map of where the Famine Irish - and the relatives who followed them - had found work in Britain.
It's interesting to compare the distribution of Garveys to that of the surnames of Jarvie and Garvie. The distributions of both names are shown in the figure below. It can be seen that there is almost no overlap with the distribution for Garvey. These families had a much different origin than the Garveys to the south. It's not known whether the Scottish Garvies had any historical connection to the Irish Garveys - but the Garvies have a history in Scotland stretching back to at least the 1400s. According to information on the Web, Garvie and Jarvie were associated with the Clan MacLean. The crest shown at right is that of the Garvies of Scotland.
The Garvie surname was not widely distributed in the countryside - in fact half of the 500 Garvies were in just four Scottish cities. The map of the distribution of Garvies in Perthshire shows that most of them were in or near the city of Perth. The map of the distribution of the Garvie surname in Angus shows most of the Garvies there were in or near Dundee. The Garvies in Lanarkshire were located near Glasgow (Govan, and Barony parishes). There were another 50 Garvies in the city of Edinburgh.
There were 900 Jarvies in Britain in 1881 - with half of them in Lanarkshire. The distribution of the Jarvie surname in Lanarkshire shows that the name was centered in the same northwestern corner of the county as was Garvie. This suggests the possibility that there may have been some connection between the names Jarvie and Garvie (or at least the Glasgow branch of Garvies). Another 25% of the Jarvies were in Stirlingshire.
Also see McGarvie and McGarva in the 1881 Census.
More information about the Garvie name can be found on The Clan MacLean Webpage, and Colin Garvie's Webpage.If someone knows the story behind the Jarvie/Garvie names, I'd love to hear it.
