FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Although it runs deeper, some might say it’s in the blood, I can trace my own interest in genealogy and family history back some 25 years, to the release of the 1901 Census. Since then, I have spent many hours exploring my own family’s past. It has, as it has for many of us, become a bit of an addiction, in the best possible way. With the research has come the joy of reconnecting with the wider edges of the family as well as meeting long-lost relatives who have been welcomed into the family with open arms.

My own research focuses predominantly on England and Wales, but criss-crosses both those countries, as well as beyond these shores. On the maternal side, my ancestors hailed from London, Middlesex, Wiltshire, Yorkshire and Cumberland, whilst on the paternal side, my roots can be traced to Glamorgan, Somerset, Shropshire, County Durham and East Anglia. Some roots are to be found overseas, in the migration of the Huguenots as well as those escaping persecution in the Low Countries.

PATERNAL LINE

BARTON

Photograph of of William John Barton (1866–1933), paternal great-great-grandfather

By the late-19th Century, the Barton family found themselves in Glamorgan, South Wales, yet for several decades before, they had found plentiful work as builders and bricklayers in the growing port of Hartlepool, County Durham. Prior to that, they were engaged in the wool trade in Darlington, having migrated from Norwich, Norfolk, towards the end of the 18th Century.

COLLINS

Photograph of Robert Charles Collins (1898–1972) with his wife Daisy Collins, née Chiplin (1901–1976), paternal great-grandparents

As with the Barton family, the Collins family found work as labourers in the ever growing port city of Cardiff, Glamorgan, yet their earlier roots are to be found in the the 19th Century East End of the London, in the parishes of Hoxton and Shoreditch. By contrast, in the 18th Century, they may have heralded from the far more rural parish of Little Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

MATERNAL LINE

JAMES

Photograph of ALT-text: Image of Charles Thomas Clement James (1858–1930), maternal great-grandfather

For decades, the origins of the James family have tied and untied many times. We can trace them to the City of London in the 18th Century where, despite later misfortunes, they were well-connected with London’s great and good. Their earlier ancestry has been much contested. Do we really descend from Thomas James, first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford?

WHITMARSH

Photography of Enid Margaret Whitmarsh (1913–1989), maternal great-aunt

The Whitmarsh family can trace their roots deep in Wiltshire. For many years, solicitors by profession, their work was to take them as far afield as Rye and Battle, East Sussex, and Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, and in leaner times, to the slums of North London. They boast many and varied connections, including to W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert & Sullivan fame.

As many of you will undoubtedly know, family history and genealogical research is an ongoing process; it’s a journey, and it’s one where we never truly reach the end. I’ll be sharing more about some my own research over on my blog, The Archive, and you may occasionally find it featured in publications, more about which you can find here.