Family History
Our genealogical research began back in the early 1980s, a key moment ocurring during a visit to Jean's parents in Bristol. Whilst casually leafing through the Watts Family Bible we found several pages of births, marriages and deaths between the Old and New Testaments. It was a fascinating find, we were hooked. Around the same time Nora Yarwood (Stephen's mother) had also begun to take an interest and was able to begin research into the northern branches of the family. Over the next few years we spent some considerable time searching archives and Parish Registers at County Record Offices and various other sources. We also liked to visit and photograph the actual places where events took place.
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The locations for Stephen's ancestry were mainly in
north west England, we have visited Record Offices in
Lancashire (Preston), Cheshire (Chester), Cumberland (Carlisle)
and Westmorland (Kendal). For Jean's ancestors we were in south west England, at Bristol, Somerset (Taunton) and Wiltshire (Trowbridge). |
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The most astonishing find was discovering that through his connections with the Patrickson family, the so called 'Kings of Ennerdale' in 16th Century Cumbria, Stephen was a direct descendent of the Kings of England and Scotland. This amazing story can be found here.
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Stephen with various Photo taken in 1994 for a |
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Stephen's Family History Jean's Family History |
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In addition to my own research I am pleased
to host an excellent item by Olive in Blackpool entitled:
'Growth of the County Borough of Blackpool
in the County of Lancashire 1500-1938'