It sounds a very interesting project. If you want to delve back further, this website might help you
http://gbnames.publicprofiler.org/Surnames.aspx. It shows you the distribution of surnames in England, Scotland and Wales for 1881 and 1998. For example, you can see that Hicks mainly come from the west and south of England. Ireland is not included as they have a different census, but it can give you some clues as to where various family surnames now in the States were in the UK in the 19th Century.

Tradsinger