UPDATE FOR OCTOBER 2020
Welcome from the Wickenden Families Website.
We hope you and your families are staying well during the pandemic and, if you are looking for something of interest to pursue while locked down waiting for a Covid-19 vaccine, you can do no better than to peruse the Wickenden Family Website. You will find the URL at the bottom of this email. Some recent additions of note include the following:
THE WICKEN, AN EARLY GROUP OF VIKINGS - In the August Update, we described a new page that has been added to the Wickenden History section of the Website: https://www.thomas-r-wickenden-families.com/wickenden-history/place-name-tracing-the-wicken-from-northeastern-europe-to-the-anglo-saxon-kingdom-of-hwicce. This page describes the origin of the Wicken clan of Angles and uses place-name tracing to follow the migration of the clan across the Continent, their arrival in Kent where they established the Wicken Den, and their migration to the Western Midlands of Britain where their settlement became known as the Kingdom of Hwicce. Last month, the first of four academic papers based on this page was drafted and submitted for review to an academic journal. It focused on the origin in Germany of the previously unknown tribal clan of Wicken and the evidence suggesting that they were an early group of Vikings who affiliated with the Angle tribe, long before the Viking invasions of England several centuries later. https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/2198716/normal_5f9323579cf72.pdf. Two additional papers have now been drafted and submitted to another academic journal. Each of these papers tracks the Wicken on a different leg of their migration, and each reveals another fascinating finding.
ARRIVAL ON THANET - The second paper in the series picks up the Wicken in the Netherlands and traces their arrival and settlement on the Isle of Thanet. Thanet was an island on the eastern tip of Kent where many invaders and adventurers landed, including Julius Caesar and the Roman invaders, Hengist and Horsa and the first group of Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, and St. Augustine of Canterbury on a mission to convert Britain to Christianity. Given the small size of this former island and the number of people who arrived and moved through Thanet on their way to Britain, it is truly amazing to find evidence of settlement by the Wicken, consisting of a cluster of places (the Wingham Cluster) and a den (Wychdene) whose names appear to derive from the name of the clan : https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/2198716/normal_5f931dd2a3bb5.pdf.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WICKEN DEN - The third paper traces the migration of the Wicken past Canterbury, through the Stour Gap and diagonally down into the Weald. As they approached the boundary between Kent and Sussex, they established Wingindene (Wickenden), which was incorporated later into the Manor of Cowden Lewisham and then became part of the parish and village of Cowden. Although other routes west would have been easier, such as sailing up the Thames or traveling the Roman road toward London, by exploring the wilderness of the Weald, the Wicken managed to avoid clashing with the Romano-Britons, the Jutes and the other Germanic tribes, while avoiding most of the warfare, invasions and perhaps even the worst of the pandemics of the day. This strategy may have helped the Wickendens to grow and prosper and emigrate to the different counties and to the various countries where we live today: https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/2198716/normal_5f93232f27e7d.pdf. These papers, together with the fourth one currently in process, will be attached to the Wickenden History section of the website and will be replaced by final versions once they are reviewed, revised, and accepted for publication.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ELIZABETH (WICKENDEN) GOLDSCHMIDT - Stephen Gold has written a biographical sketch of his grandmother, Elizabeth (Wickenden) Goldschmidt, known to family and friends as "Wicky." She is an example of the numerous strong, principled, productive and accomplished women in the greater Wickenden family. In the Thomas R. Wickenden family, they begin with matriarch, Charlotte (Quaife) Wickenden, and her daughter-in-law, Ida (Consaul) Wickenden. Wicky was one of Ida Consaul's granddaughters. She was not only a wife of 67 years and a mother of three children, she worked in Washington, DC and in NYC for four federal agencies as part of FDR's New Deal and as an lobbyist and consultant on issues of public welfare. In addition to her family life and her career in public service, she authored five major publications and served as a professor of Social Policy at three universities and a college. Wicky died in September of 2000 at the age of 91, truly a inspiration for us all! Thank you, Stephen, for providing this addition to the William Elgin and Marian Lamb Wickenden page of the Thomas R Wickenden Families section of this website: https://files.cdn-files-a.com/uploads/2198716/normal_5f920d3eeb520.pdf.