STRUCTURE - After several months of development, the basic structure of this website has been finalized. To ensure that updates are comprehensive, future News items will cover new developments in four areas: each of the three main sections (pages) and the operation of the website itself. The main sections are Wickenden History, Thomas R Wickenden Families, and Other Wickendens. Operations will cover everything else. An example is provided below.
METHOD OF COMMUNICATION - While the Blog format allows for posts to be added easily to past material and while it retains a record of past communications, it does not go out to viewers to inform and invite them to look at new items on the website. It can only be viewed when people open the website and navigate to the News blog. I have begun to send copies of the posts out by my personal email, and I have set up a page on my Facebook account to communicate with those who view this website. I may explore setting up a group for Friends of Wickenden (FOW) to push information out to those who accept friend invitations and are Facebook users. However, the most direct way to communicate seems to be through the Wickenden website itself, by asking people to sign up with SITE123. I believe people have to submit their email addresses and decide what to do with a free site, which may be somewhat intimidating, but perhaps this can be overcome through a personal invitation.
SAMPLE UPDATE - The following is a sample Update that I will send out by email and also utilize in my Facebook page:
UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 2019
Development of this Wickenden family website was begun last spring. Over the summer and fall, a great deal has been accomplished. So far, the winter has also seen a number of exciting developments in each of the major sections of the site.
1. WICKENDEN HISTORY
James Wickenden (1727) - John Wickenden has submitted information on a possible source for birth information in Rainham, Kent, on James Wickenden (1727). Rainham is close to Strood, near Rochester, Kent, where James was married in 1756. He would have been 29 - a bit old but still a likely candidate. I will explore this information and provide an update to the James Wickenden (1727-37) profile as part of the article on "Pathways to Cowden for Thomas Aaron Wickenden" contained in the page on Pathways to (and from) Cowden. It is clear that to push development of this pathway (and the Wickenden Wikitree) even further, we must take advantage of the powerful search engines of tree builders such as Ancestry. Perhaps in the summer, I will have time to devote to this effort.
Anglian Clans - Fifteen den names from Kent, in addition to Wickenden have been traced to locations in Germany and Austria. These cognates or similar names providing evidence that the root forms, like Wicken, may refer to family groups or clans belonging to Germanic tribes such as Angles and Saxons, and may have emigrated to Britain in the 7th and 8th centuries, prior to the establishment of the dens. This information complements the maps tracing the location of Wickendorfs and Wickendens. It provides additional evidence that the Wicken may have been a clan of the Angle tribe, and it is included on the page From Wickendorf to Wickenden.
Early English Wickendens - Over one thousand Wickenden christenings (and some marriages) included in the International Genealogical Index of parish records have been entered into a spreadsheet and analyzed. The demographics (names, gender and location by county) have been analyzed and mapped. Additional maps have been constructed for the totals by county by century, showing the slow migration of Wickendens away from Cowden and toward the West where, curiously, the Kingdom of Hwicce was located. The movement to over 140 other English villages and their distances from Cowden is also analyzed, including those nine villages that served as major centers of settlement for the Wickendens. The groups of families in each major center are identified as the initial branches of the Wickenden family. Additional Information on Wickenden marriages, births and deaths will be added to this database in the future. Also, the dates and locations from which Wickendens emigrated to other countries will be added as they become available. This information is included in the page on Pathways to (and from) Cowden.
2. THOMAS R WICKENDEN FAMILIES
Thomas Howard and Dee Shuman Wickenden - Additional pictures have been submitted by Elizabeth Wickenden McMahon for this family page. This information relates to the first, second, and third generations of this family. Also, digital copies of family videos have been downloaded and selected items will be added to the third generation portion of the page, perhaps through the THW Family Visuals website which is attached to this page.
William Elwin and Marion Lamb Wickenden - Comments, pictures,text and links to other documents have been submitted by Arthur E. Goldschmidt, Jr. and by Steven Gold for this family page. This information relates to the second and third generations of this family.
3. OTHER WICKENDENS
Wickenden Wikitree - Michael Terpstra has provided information on Susan Wickenden Hunter (1948-2015), her spouse and her relatives that now ties to the Wickenden Wikitree through her father Richard Samuel Wickenden (1915-1986), son of Rollin Wickenden (a. 1885) ), son of James William Wickenden (1850-1932), son of Thomas and Charlotte Quaife Wickenden and brother of Thomas R Wickenden.
4. WEBSITE OPERATIONS
A Facebook page has been created for the Thomas-R-Wickenden-Families website. It is attached to the Tom Wickenden Facebook page. The Facebook features regarding this page will be explored to determine how they might complement those of the website itself.
This Update will be provided not only as this News blog but also by email and as a post to the Facebook website page. A Facebook group may be established for Friends of Wickenden who are on Facebook. Alll Wickendens on Facebook plus others for whom we have email addresses will be invited to join.