Another Tree Amalgamation

The number of Trees being worked on has just been reduced again by the amalgamation of former Tree 2R into Tree D. This takes the current number of Trees down to 27.
Tree 2R will however remain in the Family Tree link until the next update takes place.

Tree Updates

All Trees have been updated as at 1st December to reflect my records at that date. The current number of Trees produced is 28 although 2 more are in the process of being deleted as they are amalgamated with other Trees. Current number of individuals is 1654 and records are currently being updated in connection with various Census returns and the US Census of 1940.

Frederick John HOOKINS (Tree A)

Frederick John HOOKINS was my grandfather. As previously mentioned in the blog posts he was a Wheelwright by trade. At some time however he began a business of building, decorating coupled with undertaking. This picture shows him dressed for a funeral and he obviously took great pride in performing this duty with the required dignity of such a role. I remember stories of him going to his work using a handcart as it was long before his firm was able to make use of any motorised transport. He took 2 of his sons into the business. One of these was Bill (William John) who was a carpenter and the other was my father, Fred (Frederick Charles) who was a decorator but also later became involved with the undertaking side of the business. When their father died Bill and Fred continued with the business. Bill seemed to have an aptitude for the business side of the firm as well as his skills in the work required of the firm. There was often a coffin being made in their workshop and I remember and loved the smell of the wood shavings as the finished article took shape. The firm was well respected in the local area and my father rarely completed an uninterrupted week's holiday in our usual destination of Weymouth before being called back for a funeral which he never refused to do. It was inconvenient but very good to know that the families didn't want to entrust their loved ones with anyone else.

Willie, Henry & Walter HOOKINS (Tree A)

Willie (left), Henry (right) and Walter (front) were all sons of William and Susan HOOKINS and brothers of my Grandfather Frederick John HOOKINS. The three brothers were all enlisted in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars for the 1st World War. Two other brothers served in the Army Service Corps (Samuel) and as a Bombardier in the Royal Field Artillery (Charlie).

Children of Frederick John & Emma Selina HOOKINS (Tree A)

Fred and Emma HOOKINS produced 6 children born between the middle of 1906 and the beginning of 1920. Their youngest was Jesse and his exlusion from this photograph either means he had not yet been born or was considered too young to be included. Consequently the dating of this photograph is either 1920 itself or perhaps more likely a few years later in that decade. A date of 1922 would make young Bert on the front left 4 years old, my father Fred (front right) aged 8, Daisy (middle left) aged 12, Bill (middle right) aged 14 and Grace at the back aged 16. These children eventually married with Fred and Daisy both staying in the village in Somerset where their parents lived. Grace moved to Swindon, Bert to Devon and Bill into Bath although later returning to the same village as Daisy and Fred. Incidentally Fred and Emma lived in a house for a large part of their lives called "Dilkusha" which apparently is a Hindi word meaning "Peace in the Heart" but who named the house I don't know.

1871 Census

I have now completed my check through the 1871 Census noting all the references for HOOKINS of which there were 120 which is the sort of number usually found in the different Census returns. In addition there were another 80 with the HOOKINGS name some of which seem to have been transcribed incorrectly by the enumerator as they refer to people on the HOOKINS Trees. Others indexed under the name of HOOKINS seem to be HOSKINS - there are 11 of these some of which I have been able to check back to previous records to prove as incorrect.
Elizabeth, James, John, Sarah and William feature perhaps more than others.
Now I will start the process of recording each one so that I can show where each was living at Census time and then to establish who wasn't there who perhaps should have been. In doing this in another Census I found one indexed as ROOKINS - only one letter different but a mile away on the index!

Frederick John HOOKINS (Tree A)

My grandfather Frederick John HOOKINS was apprenticed to James WENSLEY as a Wheelwright and Carpenter by the above Indenture.
James lived in the village of Mark on the main road leading through the village called Blackford Road in the 1901 Census with his wife and 5 children although as his eldest son was only 8 years younger than James' wife I guess this was James' 2nd or subsequent marriage. On that Census his property was listed next to the entries for the Parish Church and Post Office. The current Post Office is situated directly opposite the Church so it doesn't seem to have moved far if at all since 1901. James was born in Brompton Ralph which is interestingly where Fred's ancestors had lived with his great-great grandfather Robert having been born there about 100 years prior to this Census.
Fred, as an 18 year old minor, needed his father William's permission to enter into this apprenticeship and William is seen to be a party to this document with various obligations to fulfill. Fred, you will see, was paid the princely sum of ten shillings per week for the first year of his apprenticeship which increased to fifteen shillings for his second and final year. His working day is stipulated as ten and a half hours and he has to work 6 days each week - I wonder how the youth of today would feel about that!!!! He was due to start on 1st June although the Indenture was not signed until 3rd August so possibly he was being tried out during the interim period.
Elsewhere on the blog is a picture of Fred outside a workshop bearing his name as a Wheelwright so he obviously made the grade and enabled him to maintain a family as he was married just 5 years later.

1851 Census

I have now completed the copying of the relevant 69 pages for suggested HOOKINS names mentioned in the 1851 Census. Pages copied included 177 people with the HOOKINS name whilst another 8 look as though they are HOSKINS. 91 others have the HOOKINGS surname although many are already in my records so are likely to be HOOKINS and 2 others appear to be HOOKING. I will find out more as I begin to add the details of the Census pages to the individual records of each person as I can carry out more checks on what the surname should be and establish those who do not seem to have appeared but should be there.

New Slide Shows on Family Photographs Tab

Grateful thanks to my West Africa based IT Consultant (daughter Sharon) who has provided a marvellous addition to the blogsite. A number of photos accompany the various articles written since the website began and these have now been added ...

as slide shows for each Family Tree so all of the photos are together for my own Tree A and all the others. So if you are linked to a particular Tree you can just click on Family Photos and select your Tree to view all the pictures relating to it. Brilliant!

Some Hookins Interlopers Identified

In my Hookins Family History records there are 126 family units and a total of 553 individuals who don't belong to a particular Tree because I haven't located a link. I have completed a check of all of these Miscellaneous families and by reference to Census and birth, marriage and death details I have been able to identify quite a few as other names like HOSKINS where poor writing by the person who completed the transcribing for the Census or other record has been continued into other records. So I've found more than 100 who could not be confirmed as HOOKINS although it is quite possibe that some of the HOOKINGS could be as it's a mistranscription which often occurs. Part of the probem of Family History is that all original records are created by humans whom we thank for their help in transcription but these are always open to that dreaded "human error" which affects us all.

Names the Hookins Family have links with

Hookins Family Trees don't contain people who have always been or who will necessarily always be Hookins. Some people are very fortunate to marry into the family!!! Others have adopted the name and still others get married - like my 2 daughters - and take on another name. But all of those people in my records - more than 1630 - are linked to the name past, present or future and this will contimue to evolve. Needless to say therefore that it isn't just people who currently hold the Hookins name who can provide useful information about the Hookins Family History. My most recent new contact who was very helpful in this respect married a Hookins lady and lives in Canada where there are others still holding the Hookins name or have descended from a Hookins.
So these other names are important to help understand how all the Hookins people fit together and are a very help source of knowledge. I have recently been through my records and have compiled a list of surnames with which we have or are connected and they total 457 although some are duplicated and I am going to upload this to the blog and keep it updated so that people other than the current Hookins may also be aware of this and maybe share information which will be mutually beneficial.

Trees Updated

All the Family Trees according to my records as at 7th August 2012 have now been updated and an up to date list of the "miscellaneous members" not linked to specific Trees has been included.
It should be noted that after communications with Jim in America two Trees are being amalgamated. I am in the process of transferring data from Tree 2S to Tree I after which Tree 2S will be deleted.
The up to date Trees incorporate some of the additional information I have obtained during the year so far from the various Census returns I have been going through. This task is still proceeding and the next update will hopefully include all of these changes.

No Post Since March - What have I been doing?

Well...........I have been busy making the most of an annual subscription I took out with a Family History site where I can access information and indices without having to pay each time. It has given me much more freedom to check things out rather than to use up precious purchased units.
So I have been checking out the Census records for all Hookins and Hookings entries for 1841, 1951, 1871 and 1911. This involves finding them all, taking a print of the page, indexing them, identifying which families they belong to (sometimes checking other records and finding that they are Hoskins thanks to the writing of the Census enumerator!), recording on individual records and then trying to find out why some people are missing (maybe indexed by the Family History site under a completely different name like Kookins thanks to handwriting or mis-transcribing). So I am at various stages with each of those.
I have also recently been able to check all the Hookins/Hookings births from 1837-2006 with their GRO references - I had many of them but it needed completing. Then I'll move on to the marriages and deaths which are not so complete.
Different surnames crop up from time to time which I know I have come across before linked to a family tree member so to help myself locate them I have started to pull together an index of all those names - I'm about halfway through my 400 odd families now as I log maiden/other surnames. Quite a list - it's amazing how many different surnames the Hookins clan have become involved with over the years.
Access to the Family History site records also enables me to check some of the family records I have where they do not appear to be connected to any other family and working through these with the help of that website has identified that some had surnames which were definitely not Hookins so I have been able to note their records to that effect.
So new people are being found all the time - we are up to 1627 now - and I will soon be uploading up to date versions of all of the Trees which will include all the additional information I have discovered.
So although I've been quiet I have still been beavering away with the research.

Frances Louisa HOOKINS (Tree T)

Frances is significant for the fact that she is the 1600th name to be added to my Family Tree database. Her parents were John HOOKIN(G)S and Amelia (nee FINCH). John seems to have been registered in the name of HOOKINGS as was their marriage in Salperton Parish Church in December 1874 when John was a Servant but later he became a Coachman Domestic Servant and later still a Domestic Gardener. Frances Louisa was their firstborn being born at the beginning of 1875 in the name of HOOKINS but has not previously appeared on my records of the family as she was not with the family in the 1891 Census. I do not appear to have found the family yet on the 1881 and 1901 Censuses but she did turn up with the family in 1911 when they lived at Trelawney Road in Brislington, Bristol. Her siblings were Edmund George born in 1877, Ellen Mary born in 1879 both born in the name of HOOKINGS, Desmond born in 1885 recorded it seems as HOOKINGS and HOOKINS but one may have been a correction, and Florence Beatrice born 1890 as HOOKINS. In 1911 Florence was a Parlour Maid to the family of a retired Vinegar Maker in Clifton, Bristol as HOOKINS. Ellen Mary was in Queens Gate in London as Housemaid to the family of a Barrister as HOSKINS. I may have to follow some of the lines on to the next generation to find out which name they actually all ended up with but I am glad that the 1911 Census enabled me to restore Frances to her rightful place in the family.

Transcriptions

Numerous transcriptions abound prepared by devoted people to help others find relatives lurking in past records but be very wary about relying on them without reference to original sources. I am currently benefiting from an annual subscription to Find My Past which enables me to constantly refer to original records to see where transcribers have strayed by giving us HOOKINS people we shouldn't have and depriving us of those who are rightly "ours".
I have just altered all my records for the family of a Caleb HOOKINS who was recorded as such as a widower with his 3 children in the 1891 Census on a transcription. Having now looked at the original Census page image on Find My Past I am inclined to transfer him and his family to the HOSKINS fraternity and a further check on the birth index for all 3 children reveals that they were all recorded as HOSKINS so he has been truly despatched to that clan.
Another plot by people to infiltrate our elite family has been foiled!

Caroline HOOKINS (Tree G)

This is a bit of a Caroline and George HOOKINS run around. Having just almost tied myself in knots with Carolines and Georges I'll attempt not to lose you in the explanation. It all started with Caroline HOOKINS born in 1831/2 judging by the 1881 Census but that varies it seems at each Census or record I found! She had an illegitimate child called George at the Union Workhouse in Mitcham in 1853 - although when George got married he gave his father's name as George (but more of that in a moment). George then proceeded in 1874 to marry someone else called Caroline (nee TRASH and whose father was George TRASH) who had been born in Cove Hampshire and they had at least 11 children one of who was a George but it seems no Caroline. 3 years before her marriage this Caroline (TRASH) had been a Nurse Maid at the Dog & Fox Hotel in Wimbledon. George died in 1903 and his wife in 1925.
George's mother Caroline had married John COLLINS in 1863 at Streatham but as this was 10 years after young George's birth he is unlikely to have been the father. Although I haven't prove it I assume that John COLLINS died because in 1873 (1 year before son George's marriage)Caroline COLLINS married George TRASH the father of her daughter-in-law so as George TRASH therefore became young George's step father I guess may have used his name on his marriage certificate rather than leave it blank - He id call him Hookins though! In the 1881 Census both families are living in Bath Road - a common address for Mitcham Hookins' - next door to each other and George TRASH and his wife had George's 2 children living with them.
There we are - wasn't that fun?!!!!!

Albert Henry HOOKINS (Tree G)

Albert Henry HOOKINS was born in 1885 in Mitcham. He enlisted at Kingston-upon-Thames and joined the first Batallion East Surrey Regiment as Private No. 6353. He was despatched to the Somme in the First World War and it was there that he died on 28th July 1916. Thanks to Steve who tells me that he visited the area in which Albert died and discovered that about 70 of Albert's colleagues died with him that day at Longevalle/Delville Wood. Steve took these 2 photos of the Thieval Memorial and the inscription which is included and which relates directly to Albert. Our grateful thanks to Albert and his mates for the scrifice they made that day. I am hoping that Steve with his Dad's help will be able to prove their link to Albert because that will enable me to join 2 Trees together and will change the Tree Steve is on from a 6-page to a 20-page Tree.