The Medford surname

In the 2010 U.S. Census, 4,099 people carried this name — #8,089 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 71,900 people counted. That is up 2% from 4,026 in 2000.

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Where the name comes from

The origin of the Medford surname

A variant of Mitford.

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «Medford» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.

In print

Medford in American newspapers,
1892–1901.

Newspaper page from The Courier carrying the name Medford
The Courier 1901-01-05
Newspaper page from Weekly Graphic carrying the name Medford
Weekly Graphic 1892-10-14

Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain.

In print

Medford in Australian newspapers,
1860s–1950s.

145 articles name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Medford. The most, 28, date from the 1910s. New South Wales has the most articles, but weighed against how much of each state’s press from the same decades has been digitised, the name stands out most in Tasmania, at 2.7 times its expected share.

Articles, by state

New South Wales 41
Queensland 29
Victoria 29
Tasmania 25
South Australia 15
Western Australia 4
Northern Territory 1

Trove, National Library of Australia (trove.nla.gov.au) · articles in its digitised newspapers that name a Mr, Mrs or Miss Medford.

Who carried it

People named Medford,
with a public archive behind them.

  • Kay Medford
    Kay Medford 1919–1980 · actor
  • Don Medford 1917–2012 · film director
  • Claude Medford Jr. 1941–1989 · artist

Wikidata (CC0) · portraits via Wikimedia Commons, shown cropped, in the public domain or CC0 · 6 lives in all are documented under this name.

In the public record

People named Medford,
in the records of 2 countries.

Soldiers, farmers, migrants and neighbours who carried the name and left a trace in public archives. Everyone shown here died long ago or was born more than a century ago.

United States312 records

312 records of the Medford name in the United States
  • U.S. Army enlistment records, World War II 173
  • New York City birth, marriage and death certificates 59
  • U.S. veterans' cemetery records, burials to 2001 51
  • U.S. alien registration index, 1940–1955 22
  • U.S. service members who died in the Korean War 3
  • New York State death index (outside NYC), 1957–2001 3
  • Sacramento County historic burials 1
  1. A United States Selective Service registration card, 1942
    Example: U.S. registration card, 1942
    Military record Lonnie Medford

    Born 1923 in North Carolina. Enlisted 1943 at Camp Croft, South Carolina; farm hand. U.S. Army veteran of World War II; died 2000, buried at Crawford/Ray Memorial Gardens, Canton, North Carolina.

    U.S. National Archives, WWII Army Enlistment Records (public domain); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)
  2. Names engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.
    Example: U.S. war memorial
    War record Robert Donald Medford

    Born 1932; from Oakland, California. U.S. Marine Corps; killed in action 1951 in Korea. Buried at San Francisco National Cemetery, California.

    U.S. National Archives, Defense Casualty Analysis System (public domain); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)
  3. A U.S. Army record of death and interment, Camp Nelson, Kentucky, 1864
    Example: U.S. burial record, 1864
    Burial record Ronald Berry Medford

    U.S. Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War. Born 1946, died 1999; buried at Memphis Memory Gardens, Tennessee.

    U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0)

Showing 3 of 312 records for Medford in the United States.

Counts: U.S. National Archives, WWII Army Enlistment Records (public domain) · NYC Department of Records & Information Services, Historical Vital Records (NYC Open Data) · U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gravesite Locator (CC0) · U.S. National Archives, Flexoline Index Data File (public domain) · U.S. National Archives, Defense Casualty Analysis System (public domain) · New York State Department of Health, Genealogical Research Death Index · Sacramento County, Historic Burials (CC BY 4.0). Example pages, not the records of the people shown: U.S. Selective Service registration card, 1942 (public domain); Vietnam Veterans Memorial, photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden, 2009 (public domain); Record of death and interment, Camp Nelson, Kentucky, 1864, U.S. National Archives (public domain).

Canada1 record

1 record of the Medford name in Canada Nova Scotia Archives name indexes
  1. A Canadian First World War grave register card for a soldier who died of wounds in 1917
    Example: Canadian war grave register, 1917
    War record Walter Medford

    Served in the No. 2 Construction Battalion in the First World War, corporal; of Barbadoes, British West Indies.

    Nova Scotia Archives. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Nova Scotia.

Counts: Nova Scotia Archives. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Nova Scotia. Example pages, not the records of the people shown: Canadian First World War circumstances-of-death register (scan by Scottgraham87 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Nearby in the index

Surnames next to Medford.

When the index is not enough

This page says where Medford is.
A volume says what happened to it.

Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.

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