1. Genetic Genealogy
The aim of genetic genealogy is to make a family tree of men with the name of Batman from their DNA analysis. This analysis then groups living Batmans into lines of descent, indicating that they have descended from a common ancestor at a certain identifiable point in time. Hopefully this tree points towards documentary evidence on the origin of the Batman family.
There are at present probably about 50 people with the surname of Batman living in England and Wales (there were 45 Batmans in 2002 in the Office of National Statistics database). The rarity of the surname suggests that it originated from a single individual, and the probability is that this person came from York given the concentration of the surname there in recent centuries. The origin of the surname is unclear, but the most likely theory is that the first Batman was a servant of Bartholomew or ‘Bart's man’.
A genetic genealogy group researching the names of Bateman and its variants including Batman already exists, administered from Houston in Texas. The aim of this group is to link all males with these surnames. The first step in this process is to analyse DNA of as many living men with the name of Bateman or Batman. The DNA results are being used to construct a genetic tree of the family.
2. Documentary evidence
There are still numerous lines of research on the Batman family from old documents which are still to be carried out. There are several pockets or clans of Batmans listed in parish records, tithe maps, wills, etc which haven’t been analysed yet. There are old Batman families in the regions of Goole, Sherburn in Elmet, South Milford and Micklefield in Yorkshire. There are also many references to the name of Batman in the old parish registers of York itself which are awaiting research.
The 1881 census of Great Britain (excluding Ireland) showed 130 people with the surname Batman. The greatest concentration of Batmans was in Yorkshire (32 in the West Riding of Yorkshire and 13 in York). The other counties in which Batmans lived were: Middlesex (15), Surrey (14), Staffordshire (11), Gloucestershire (10), Worcestershire (7), Northamptonshire (6), Pembrokeshire (5), Lancashire (5), Lincolnshire (3), Warwickshire (2), Cheshire (2), and one each in Nottinghamshire, Norfolk, Kent, Essex and Cumberland. There were also 7730 people with the surname Bateman listed in the 1881 census, again with the greatest concentration in the West Riding of Yorkshire (data from Archer Software’s British 19th Century Surname Atlas, Archer Software, 2003).