Bill Wilcox, My Ancestors, 1970 – 2013

“I suppose all this started as a young boy in Liverpool and listening to stories from our mother about her uncle Joe from Yorkshire, who as a child of 6 years was sent down the coal mines. As a child this story did not actually resonate with my siblings or me but I always knew I wanted to know but in the days before computers and the Internet there were little avenues to explore ones ancestral links.

As we moved into a faster global world and family members moved to hopefully better lives in new lands the links that had bound families started to fray and as new generations were born the stories that were told by our parents and grandparents seemed less significant, I can honestly say what I have unearthed about our family ancestry has filled me with a desire to carry on and to document as much as possible on our Ancestry.com site for future generations to enjoy.
Whilst exploring our ancestral past it has shown that on both our mothers and fathers sides the ancestral links are global in reach. My sister in law set up an ancestry tree some 2-3 years ago and I saw a name that looked French within it and thought I’ll see if I can trace it back as far as possible and it led me back to The Canary Islands in 1635 and then coming forward a few generations founded an ancestor had boarded a ship bound for Louisiana (Which was then Spanish owned) with the intention of fighting the British. This ancestor went on to becoming a war hero and patriot. As I explore the Canary Island connection within our tree I found numerous French and Spanish names within our direct ancestry. I traced the French connection back to various parts of Alsace & Lorraine in the late 1500’s and some of these families also headed to Louisiana and this is another area I’m looking forward to exploring further

Our mother Doris Robina is a Hardaker and as I started to trace mums ancestors part of it has led me to Yeadon/Idle/Rawdon areas of Yorkshire and as far back as 1605 to our 8th Great Grand Father Roger Hardaker, born 1605-1667, buried at – St. Oswald’s Church, Guiseley.

Some parts of our Hardaker ancestors were part of the first Quakers in Yorkshire and were in fact Clothiers. There are articles online about the Quakers In Rawdon and some of their meetings were documented.

So All History Does Matter, it matters to each and everyone of us but affects us all differently but I would like to ask the readers of this wonderful Facebook Page to ask questions, ask questions of your parents, grandparents, aunties & uncles ………… We all owe it to our future generations.

I’d dearly love to be allowed to post more about our family history within the site but understand if declined. We currently have close to 10,000 ancestors in our tree with links to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, European Royalty, Romans, Kings of Wessex and a variety of other historical information worth sharing.

Having the Hardaker connection in Yorkshire for our family is fantastic and as being contacted to family members would of course be the ultimate prize for our family as mum is 90 years old now and with the onset of dementia would love to fill her mind with memories of past and present family history.”

Thank you for allowing me to share just a portion of our family history with you and if you think your related directly it would be an honour to hear from you.

Best Wishes

Bill Willcox

( Singapore )

Photo is Marina Bay, Singapore

May 2013.