About My English Roots
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.
Attributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905-2004)
To open a Music Player, click here.
There is some Vaughn Williams, the original Flower of Scotland by the Corries,
some folk tunes (including Steeleye Span) and even Sting's Fields of Gold. All
very easy listening whilst you browse. |
How to navigate my site
For all my ancestors who worked on the land for
long
centuries.
About my site
Welcome to my site. Meet my ancestors, I am blood of their blood and bone of their
bone. They lie in the churchyards of parish churches in England and Scotland, and
have long ago returned to the soil that nurtured them. Their history is the history
of ordinary people. I make no claims to royalty, nobility or legendary figures in my
ancestry. Having said that, if you look at my Burstow line, you will see links back to
William the Conqueror and beyond. This line isn't proved, but is included because it's
interesting, and I live in hopes, but please treat with caution.
You will also find that blood relatives are marked by coloured squares. There are
several people who have no markers, but who are related by marriage, and included as
they link different parts of the tree together, or may be mentioned in wills or other
documents, or are an interesting family in their own right.
My family hasn't produced anyone famous (or infamous), they have mostly been country
people, working on the land, generation by generation. For some reason, though, I do
seem to have a lot of shoemakers - why is a great mystery. The one exception to this
is
Sir Richard Tangye, a distant cousin.
Please help me
Several people have helped me by
sharing
research
and I am very grateful to them all. If I have missed anyone, apologies, and please
let
me know to include you.
I am happy to share my research, but please ask me first, and state it was from
here. Also, if you find I have made a glaring mistake somewhere, please don't
feel afraid to tell me, as I'd much sooner know than go on in ignorance.
If you are interested in any of my names listed above and contact me via the link
in the first paragraph for the visitor password, please let me know which names
interest you, as I have other information not on this site.
You might find a surname with the first name Collector. This is because I
have found some notes on the family that I can't assign correctly, but don't want to
lose. Perhaps they mean something to you. If so, please let me know.
Currently, I am working on two projects -
I have both Bray(e) and Sander(s)/Saunders in my tree from the Horley Surrey area,
and one line of research at the moment is to see if there is a connection to the
Saunders family of Charlwood and the Bray family of Horley and Ewell. I am trying to
gather records on these families.
The second line of research is on my Bristow ancesters, and with the help of John and
Patrick Bristow, and their helpful site
The Bristow Family Tree, we are hoping
to sort out this family into the mediaeval and pre-conquest period.
If these names interest you, hopefully, you will get in touch and share information..
Where My Ancestors Lived
So far, I have traced family to
Surrey, Sussex, Kent, London, Suffolk,
Huntingdonshire, Wiltshire, Cornwall, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire in
England, and Lanarkshire in Scotland. I live in
England, and all my names
are here or
Scotland. I have a few details of people from Australia, Canada
and
USA, but these are only for 'married in' names.
Picture of
England and
Scotlandsfamily.com have produced useful maps, and
are interesting sites to visit.
Click here to see Google maps of the towns and villages in more detail.
Modern views of where my ancestors
lived
As Google Street View covers more areas, I will be adding to this section, but take a
look anyway, some places would be recognised, some not at all.
Click here to see the images.
View a List of Stories
I have tried to say a little about the origins of my family names.
I have also transcribed the
diary of my great great
aunt, Margaret Marion Pearce, who travelled around the world in the early
1880's.
There are also some items of general background information, which I hope you find
interesting. Take a look,
The National Geographic Genographic
Project.
(For my
really ancient family history - back many thousands of years.)
The NGGP.
uses DNA to follow the early migration history of the human race. I have taken part,
and details of my results have been traced back to before
The Last Ice Age.
The sources of my information
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MAJORITY OF MY INFORMATION HAS COME FROM PRIMARY
SOURCES. AFTER 1837, THIS IS BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH REGISTRATIONS, OR INDEXES AND
CENSUS,AND DETAILS ARE NORMALLY SHOWN.
PRIOR TO THIS, UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED, THE ENTRIES ARE MOSTLY FROM PARISH REGISTERS
OR WILLS, BUT YOU MAY FIND DETAILS OF LAND TRANSACTION AND THE LIKE FROM COUNTY
RECORD OFFICES OR OTHER SOURCES. ALL ARE PRIMARY SOURCES. I AM TRYING TO
UPDATE EACH INDIVIDUAL ENTRY, BUT IT TAKES A TIME!
WHERE I HAVE TAKEN INFORMATION FROM DUBIOUS SOURCES, SUCH AS THE IGI, I HAVE NOTED
THAT IN THE NOTES OF THE PERSON CONCERNED.
Some helpful hints
If you're not used to reading old documents, I have tried to give
some helpful hints and given a list of regnal years of
English kings and queens
(used to date some legal documents) and a brief explanation of the change of
calender dates from the
Julian to Gregorian.
Thanks again for looking.
Some links to other sites that you may find useful
Lastly, please sign my guest book.
and may not be
reproduced or copied in any form without permission.
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