Tree J

Tree J consisted of just 4 families but a link has now been made with Tree M to which all the records have now been transferred. This will show on the next Tree update when Tree J itself will be deleted.

Frank Bryan HOOKINS (Tree Misc)

Frank Bryan HOOKINS was an isolated member on my Family Tree records. I had located a record of him as an acting Sub Lieutenant with the Fleet Air Arm in torpedo spotter reconnaissance in the 2nd World War. Thankfully the note I put about him in the blog has come to the attention of one of his few relatives and I am grateful to Jonathan for making contact and giving me more information and photographs.



Frank's aircraft was lost in June 1940 when it was operating from a Dutch airbase. Frank was only 20 and was buried in Holland. His sister and only sibling was due to be married just weeks after his death. I am delighted to have a photo of Frank in his Fleet Air Arm uniform.











His sister's wedding went ahead in the uncertainties surrounding them during wartime and I have also been given a copy of their wedding photograph which appears here.











From the initial record of Frank I have now details of their family unit which has led me to the 1911 Census after his parents had married in 1910. His father Frank Woollatt HOOKINS was born in 1883 in Sheffield and worked for only one employer throughout his life. He was with S & J Watts of Manchester which was a very large haberdasher and linens wholesaler where he eventually rose to their buyer in the Manchester warehouse. Before that he had been a Commercial Traveller with the firm which is presumably how son Frank came to be born in Northern Ireland. I am now proceeding to obtain his birth certificate to ensure that other members can be added to this small Family Tree or maybe can be added to one of my existing Trees. Thank you Jonathan for the copy of the photograph of his grandfather as well as each of the others and it is good to be touch with a descendant.