I am interested in the Couzens surname because that was the maiden name of my maternal grandmother. My grandmother was born in Wiltshire, England, and emigrated with her parents to New South Wales, Australia, in 1907.

My Couzens ancestors and their descendants (and the officials who recorded their names in church registers and census records) appear to have always spelt their name as Couzens - well at least from the beginning of the nineteenth century, which is as far back as I have been able to trace the family so far.

The Couzens family lived in the parishes in and around Avebury and Berwick Bassett for all of the nineteenth century. Consequently, most of my research into the Couzens family has concentrated on Wiltshire and this region in particular. There were other Couzens families living in the area during this time and I have also collected lots of information on these families in the hope that one day I may be able to connect them to my own family. Because it is possible that, in earlier times, the family spelt their name differently, I have collected information for all the different variations in the spelling (eg Cousins, Cozens, etc). I have identified three other key families on which I have collected quite a lot of information. I refer to them as the Chippenham/Langley Burrell family, Yatesbury/Berwick Bassett family and the Avebury family respectively. I have constructed family trees for each of these families but have not included them on this web site.

Using the 1881 UK Census, I recently undertook a survey to see where most of the Couzens were located throughought England. I found that 72% of all Couzens were in the following four counties: Hampshire (25%, 170 individuals), Middlesex (18%, 125), Wiltshire (17%, 115), Norfolk (12%, 82) and, drawing a line from The Wash to The Bristol Channel, 96% of all Couzens were located below that line. The Couzens spelling represented only 8% of the total count of all variations of the name - Cousins was the most common with 58% of the total count - yet, when all variants were considered, 77% were still located under The Wash - Bristol Channel line. These figures seem to indicate that the Cousins/Couzens name is principally found in Southern England.

The spelling variations that appear in the 1881 Census are: Cosans, Cosens, Cosins, Cosyns, Cossens, Cossins, Cossons, Cousans, Cousens, Cousines, Cousins, Cousons, Coussans, Cousuns, Coussens, Coussins, Coussons, Couszens, Couzans, Couzenes, Couzens, Couzins, Couzons, Couzzens, Cozans, Cozens, Cozins, Cozons, Coznes. This does not include surnames such as Cosen, Cosyn, etc which I regarded as a different surname for the purposes of my survey, although it is most likely that there is a connection between the surnames from earlier times.

Other surnames that are connected with the Couzens family are Pratt, Gough, Shipway, Hunter and Dew.

If you find this Introductory Guide of interest, please send me a message at alanthompson2526_at_iinet.net.au. I would be extremely pleased to hear from anyone with family news, information or suggestions about this Introductory Guide. If anyone is interested, I have lots of other information on the family, including a far more extensive family tree which I would be happy to share.