Certificates

There is an abundance of information on birth, marriage and death certificates to aid research. I had a previous post which talked about Poppy who was married to Ted Hempkins for only 3 days before a bomb hit the shelter where they had taken cover although other family members had taken refuge in another shelter. Grateful thanks to William who has kindly sent me a copy of their marriage certificate which as well as the actual date of death has confirmed the correct spelling of Poppy's third forename and the occupation of her father at that time. It also tells me that Ted hailed form Liverpool.
After I noticed an entry on a burials index that I dind't have in my records I sent for the death certificate of Ida Hookins who died in South Wales. It turns out that she was only 4 months old when she died so wouldn't have found her way on to any census of the family. I was however able to place her in a family as it gives the parents' names and importantly the maiden name of the mother and as the family travelled between North West Somerset and South Wales it was good to be able to pinpoint her connection. One more person added to the database making the total number of individuals 1520.
I have been going through the 1911 Census and I am now just establishing if all the people that should be there are present and then trying to establish where they might be. They could be indexed as a slightly different name - a number of those claiming to be Hookins turn out to be more likely to be Hoskins or similar when the zoom is used on the monitor and it can work the other way around too.
Have had the chance to use Facebook on a few occasions to help clarify where people fit into the picture. Usually I am able to give quite a lot of information about whom I think the person is so that hopefully it will provide me with a response and that has helped me several times so it's good to use any tools we can to help with the research.

James and William HOOKINS (Tree T)

James and William HOOKINS were 2 of the 10 children of Henry and Maria HOOKINS who come from the same village in North West Somerset as my own family but I do not yet have evidence of their link to that family. In the 1861 Census James and William disappeared from the family unit which is not unusual because they were both Agricultural Labourers so it is quite likely that they could be at the place of their employment. However they did not seem to appear anywhere else. At that time they would have been 24 and 22 years old respectively. I have now located them on the passenger list of the Barque "Caucasian" (seemingly as emigrants) leaving Southampton on 10th Sep 1857 and arriving in Adelaide South Australia on 26th Dec 1857. About 200 people made the journey and unlike other journeys it is good to know that no deaths occurred on the voyage. I wonder what happened to them?

Frank Bryan HOOKINS (Misc Tree)

One of the miscellaneous names I have linked to no-one else is Frank Bryan HOOKINS whom I had found listed as an acting Sub Lieut with Royal Navy/ Royal Navy Voluntary Reserve based at HMS Peregrine (formerly Royal Navy Airstation at Ford in Sussex - now an open prison recently in the news concerning rioting by prisoners). Frank was in 826 Squadron of the Fleet Air Arm which was formed in March 1940 as torpedo spotter reconnaissance using the Fairey Albacore aircraft (as above). Aircraft was lost on 21 Jun 1940 when operating from De Kooy airbase Den Helder NL. Frank was acting sub Lieut and died in that operation aged just 20 along with acting Lieut James L M Bell and Naval AIrman 1st class Robert G Poole - all buried at Texel (Den Burg) cemetery - Frank Plot k Row 1 Grave 9. Not sure yet if Frank was British but no record can be found in the UK of his birth in 1919/20. So although I know something about his service life he still remains linked to no-one else.

Charles Frederick HOOKINS (Tree C)

This is one of the few pictures I have of anyone on Tree C. This one is of Charles Frederick HOOKINS known as Charlie. He was born in 1904 at the Globe Inn in Highbridge in Somerset where his father was licensee. Other siblings were also born there in 1908 and 1910. His father's records have become a little elusive because although he appears on different Censuses his birth record has never been located even to the extent of inspecting the birth register for the stated birth place unless his name was changed after birth but none of the births registered seem to be linked to other nown names. I even have a record of his entry into school but the information there does raise suspicions about his father's name. Charlie ran the Ship Inn in Frome when first married but later a farm called Sedgehill and on his death in 1980 was survived by his two sons and the widow of his second marriage but she has also now passed away. I am pleased to have been able to meet both of his sons and his second wife but none of them have so far been able to cast any light on grandfather Frederick John HOOKINS. I hope I can some day because I think there is a link between this Tree and Tree M which centres around Plymouth.

Jesse & Alice Mary HOOKINS (Tree A)

I am extremely grateful to Audrey who recently sent me some more photographs of her ancestors.
On the left is another picture of Jesse HOOKINS who left North Somerset for South Wales and has been featured before in this blog. Jesse married Alice Mary LANE who had been born in Fiddington in Somerset some 10 years after Jesse's birth. They are believed to have married in Bridgwater in 1900. Both are
buried in the churchyard at Llantwit Major a short distance from
their long-time home at Dimlands Lodge.

Also pictured is Henry James HOOKINS one of their sons and also the father of Audrey. He married Violet Mary JEREMIAH ON 11th April 1925 in Neath. Henry was a Railway Engine Driver - every boy's dream! - and died in 1956 at the age of just 54. His wife Violet outlived him by 41 years and died at the age of 92. Henry is pictured her outside the actual Dimlands House in the grounds of which Jesse and his family lived at Dimlands Lodge (previously featured).




Scanned or photocopies of photographs of Hookins ancestors are always welcome and can be added to the blog together with any other photos relevant to Hookins lives in the past although

those of people still alive would not be added without express permission from those involved. So if you come across any please send them through or send a message at the foot of the blog.

Susan HOOKINS (Tree A)

There have been previous posts concerning Susan and her husband William HOOKINS who lived at Pawlett in Somerset. Here we see Susan standing outside the family home. Whether the neighbours were intended to be included in the photograph is debatable but they were obviously interested in what was going on! Photograph possibly taken in the early 1900s.

Walter was one of Susan's sons born in 1887. He married Emma Gertrude HOLMES in 1922 and they lived in Yorkshire where together they ran The Daisy Hill Home.

Another of Susan's sons was Samuel born in 1881 in Huntspill in Somerset. He married Alice Lily PHELPS in Pawlett Village Church in 1909 when Walter (above) was one of the witnesses. Samuel was recorded as being a Gardener but he is pictured here on the right in what seems to be the uniform of the omnibus company of the day possibly as the driver. Is he posing with his ticket collector or is that another passenger to add to the ladies and child already on board. Are there any omnibus officianados out there?

Deceased On-Line

Have just finished working my way through a few pages of Hookins burials from www.deceasedonline.com which has enabled me to add some information to the records of some individuals where I can clearly identify the people. Where there is some doubt it has prompted me to place the death record on to my list of certificates to order just so that I can make sure of those involved and perhaps get some more information from the certificate as well. Interesting exercise though and just another example of the increasing availability of information on the web. It is important however not to rely solely on information gathered in this way because it is only as good as the person who gathered it together and should be substantiated from other original sources for every transcription done provides another opportunity for errors to be made. Original source material can't be beaten in this respect.

Henry James HOOKINS (Tree A)

Henry James HOOKINS was the son of William and Susan born in Pawlett Somerset in 1893. He served in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars but his occupation in 1943 is shown to be a Brickyard Labourer. Both his father and his uncle Walter worked at the brickworks thought to be in Puriton close to Bridgwater. The picture above shows some of the brickyard workers and Henry can be seen seated on the front row on the right.