By 1977 one-third of the members of the FFHS were one-name societies, and a sub-committee was set up to address the needs of this group.
A formal resolution was carried unanimously to establish a Guild of individuals engaged in one-name research.
[1] The decision to call it a guild was partly inspired by the notion that medieval guilds had encouraged professionalism along with mutual aid, as well as by a whimsical desire to create the acronym GOONS, evoking a popular British radio humorous show, The Goon Show, and making a self-mocking comment on the quixotic nature of one-name studies.
It has co-operated closely with the Halsted Trust, created by legacy, which promotes one-name studies.
A small core of Guild members are combining their traditional documentary research with a DNA project.
As an organisation, its principal role has been to debate and distribute advice on methods for one-name studies.
To meet the concern of members that one-name compilations are often lost to posterity when researchers die and their papers are destroyed, the Guild Archive, an electronic repository for members' one-name records, has been created and guidelines laid down on bequests of digital data to the Guild.
The Guild published Your Research Surname Guide - How to do a One-Name Study with the April 2019 edition of Family Tree Magazine (UK).
[6] The addresses of members show the bulk to be living in Britain, but with significant numbers in North America, Australia and New Zealand.