Read a very interesting paper on modelling surname populations. Gary Anstey had found that only 15% of males with the surname Anstey alive in 1600 had ancestral lines through to the present because of early death, not being married and chance. No wonder so many of my line peter out. I've looked at the parish records between 1600 and 1630 on Ancestry and found the distribution of Needham's to be quite wide. The Needham's appear in 19 counties with the most populated area being London. I was quite surprised by this as although London was the most populated city by 2 orders of magnitude I hadn't realised how many Needham's lived there. I'll have to  rethink my work plan

Area	No.
London	112
Derby	81
Lincs	62
Herts	39
Notts	34
Leics	23
Cheshire	14
Staffs	11
Shrop	10
Kent	10
Lancs	5
Northamp	5
Yorks	4
Bedford	3
Warwicks	3
Bucks	3
Oxford	2
Norfolk	2
Rutland	1
Total	424