UPDATE FOR MAY
Welcome from the Wickenden Families Website.
We hope you and your families are still staying well during the pandemic! We are pleased to describe some exciting new developments this month.
PICTURE ON THE HOME PAGE - We are using the website Home Page picture as a heading for this particular group email because we have information about the individuals in the top row. Ken Watson had speculated that these might all be Quaifes, except for two of them who were probably Jennie and Jessie, the twin sisters of Ida Consaul - but which two? All the women have the same hair style and several look similar enough to be twins. Recently we spotted a clue - the two women on the ends of the top row are wearing the same style dress! The others, therefore, are probably wives. Those on the left are wives of Robert Quaife's two sons, John and James, and the couple next to them on the right is most likely Samuel Jarrett and his wife. Samuel is the son of Robert Quaife's wife, Sarah, who is seated right below them. The couples and their children are all carefully placed so that each family is grouped with their parents and grandparents. You will also find a description of this picture on the Paternal Grandparents page of the Thomas R Wickenden Families section of the website and also on the Genealogical Questions page of the FAQ function.
MAP OF WICKENDENS AROUND THE WORLD - An interesting visual addition to the Wickendens Around the World section of the website is a Google Map, with markers for all the Wickenden Families, past and present, who are mentioned in that section. We will be adding markers for the Thomas R Wickenden Families as well. Anyone who adds a description of their family to either section is invited to add a marker to locate their family on the map. Also, a map of Rochester has been added to the Parental Grandparents page of the Thomas R Wickenden Families section, showing the proximity of the family home to the historic dockyard in nearby Chatham on the Medway River where Thomas' three masted schoner, "The Mary Caroline," was most likely docked.
WICKENDEN WIKITREE - Work has continued on the Wickenden Wikitree. More names were added from the GEDCOM files, from the IGI and from the records of the St. Margaret of Antioch Parish in Rainham, Kent, which may be found in the Medway Archive Center. The names we would like to focus on, however, are the earliest ones from the 15th and 16th century in Cowden, Tonbridge and surrounding towns, since these are most likely to be common ancestors linking all living Wickendens. For this reason, we will be participating in the England Project of WikiTree.com and following their "Orphan Trail" to learn about the resources and techniques for researching and sourcing these individuals We will also develop a set of guidelines for Wickendens interested in tracing their lines back to these Common Wickenden Ancestors. These will be added to the new Wickenden Name Study profile on Wikitree.