Family History

I’ve been researching my family history for a long time and I am fascinated by my ancestry and where my family came from originally.  Partly it’s because I’m both interested in history and people, but also because of the interesting stories you find about the people whose lives eventually led to your own.  The families I am interested in are:

WAKEFIELD FAMILY OF WARWICKSHIRE, WORCESTERSHIRE AND KENDAL

I can trace my ancestry on this part of my family back to the English Civil War, and is the family I am most interested in. This is the family of my maternal father and my Mum was a Wakefield until she married. The family were predominantly farmers and owned a number of farms and land around Water Orton, Curdworth, Hurley and Kingsbury in Warwickshire and in Wythall and Hollywood in Worcestershire.

Previous research at Warwick University once discovered a connection with the Wakefields of Kendal and English colonialist Edward Gibbon Wakefield, but I have yet to find this research or trace a link. Through this family I also have some interest in the WILLINGTON family of Warwickshire to whom they are related.

My page on the Wakefield family

JACKSON FAMILY OF SHEFFIELD

These are the families of my maternal mother’s father and so far I have only traced them back to around the early 19th century.  The family mainly lived around Hillsborough in Sheffield and for a time owned Jackson Brothers, an engineering company based on Hunter Road in Hillsborough where the Simpkins sweet factory is now.

RADLEY AND CHAPMAN FAMILIES OF SHEFFIELD

This is the family of my maternal mother’s mother and as name is more unusual and lived in Sheffield for several generations is the one that has proved easiest to research locally.  This family has been traced back to the early 19th century living in Attercliffe in Sheffield, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  Until they started working in the steel industry in Sheffield, they were either boot makers (Chapman) or carters/horsekeepers (Radley).

SWEDISH ANCESTRY

I only know a little bit about my dad’s ancestry but would like to know more. The main bar is being able to access records that are held in Sweden and there tend to be a lot more people in Sweden with the same surname. The two families are the HANSON (originally spelt HANSSON) family from Uddevalla in Bohuslän and Hjortsberga in Blekinge and the LUNDQVIST family also from Uddevalla.