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Family website of

Jim and Helen Wilkinson

www.jimandhelen.com
Well - What is this web page and why is it here?

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The simple answer is that our youngest son (Edward), along with his girlfriend
(now his wife) Caroline, gave me the '.com' address, as a birthday gift in 2002, and announced that we "had a Website."

This website tells the stories of many family members, past and present and provides a pictorial record of some of them.

The family stories include:

The Wilkinsons - in business around the City of London, as Upholders, over several generations.
Their business interests included property sales, manufacture of furniture, the fitting and furnishing of peoples houses and undertaking. Some of the furniture made by the company, in the Georgian and Regency periods, is still to be found in the antique sale rooms today.
The family Crest has recently been traced from its origins in the sixteenth century. Wilkinson Arms and Crest.

The Chaplins - landed gentry in Suffolk, cousins of the Lincolnshire Chaplins, who had numerous connections with the aristocracy. The early Chaplins included a member of Parliament during the Cromwell period (Thomas Chaplin) and a Lord Mayor of London (Sir Francis Chaplin).
Their American cousins, descended from Martha Chaplin and Sir Robert Parke, early settlers in New England, included Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, a vice president (Nelson Rockefeller) and two "first ladies" (wives of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman). Yet other descendants of this early American family included Julia Child (author and chef) and the pioneer aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Lady Diana Spencer, who became the Princess of Wales, was also descended through her mother (Frances Ruth Burke-Roche) from the same family.

The Douglases - clock and watch makers in Surrey over three generations; Clocks and watches made by the family company are still on sale in antique auctions. The fourth James Douglas was an enthusiastic and talented chorister and set up in business as the first tobacconist in Torquay.
Account of life as a chorister in the 19th century (by James Douglas)

The Croziers , a coal mining family from the North East of England. From the late sixteenth century they lived in and around Whickham, Durham. Later they lived in the mining communities / villages around Newcastle and Durham.
WP Crozier, whose father started life as a miner before becoming a Wesleyan Methodist minister, became a prominent journalist and was editor of the Manchester Guardian
The life of WP Crozier (by Steven Forster Crozier)

The Willoughbys from Redruth and Illogan, Cornwall - yeomen and farmers and later, during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, copper and tin miners. Charlie (W.C.) Willoughby became a Congregationalist Minister and missionary, who helped to shape southern Africa and later was Professor of African Missions at Hartford Seminary, Connecticut.
WC Willoughby and the "Three Bantu Kings"   WC (Charlie) Willoughby

The Homewoods from Bethnal Green, who were weavers first and brewers later. One became a master mariner and an American citizen and he and his son (also a ship's captain) took their sailing ships around the world. Phebe Homewood was born at sea off the Cape of Good Hope and two of her siblings were also born in such far flung places as San Francisco and Columbo.

The Stanleys from Trim, County Meath in Ireland, became established in Sydney in the mid nineteenth century after the arrival of Patrick Stanley at the age of 23 in 1849. He became a successful businessman and property owner and was mayor of Redfern for four terms. He lived at Meath House in Cleveland St, Redfern. Two of his grand daughters have written about the family in a document entitled "Meath House"

The history of these families and their genealogy is summarised in documents on:

"History of Family and Family Trees"
(requires password - please e-mail Jim if you want access)

Apologies to those who are not shown or mentioned. Feel free to make contact and send us some details / pictures.
The site is continuing to grow and evolve as new members of the family arrive and as further information becomes available.