It has been almost 2 years since I added an update, so here is one.

Over the past 2 years I have been adding more and more details to the family history. In particular a whole set of free to access Irish BMD images have been made available which has transformed the Irish KILKIE connection. 

I have also been adding census information, tracing our relatives lives in between their birth, marriage and death. As you probably know census takes place every 10 years and it is (to me at least) fascinating to see how people move around, change jobs... For example My Auntie Annie born and raised in Glasgow suddenly appears in her grandfather's house in Derry on the night of the census in 1911 aged 3 - no sign of any of her relatives who were all back in Glasgow. Similarly I find my wife's great grandmother up in Sunderland in a lace factory and then 10 years later she is living as a lodger in a house in Gravesend owned by her future husband (who was living as a lodger somewhere else).

You really should get involved in adding information to the site. You can do it yourself or send things to me to put up. In addition I am continuing to travel through spacetime and we will need a new Dr Who for the tardis sooner or later.

Govan to me as a 7 year old was a big place. In those days parents didnt take you around and I was always out and about with my pals.

An update on progress being made on our joint family history. Please come in, the water is lovely!

STATISTICS:

Total Individuals 2,946 Total Males 1,497 (50.81%)  Total Females 1,428 (48.47%)   
Total Living 899  Total Families 1,008  Total Unique Surnames 760  

1. December 2016

The new site went live. This not only updated the website and made it more usable on phones and tablets but it also introduced TNG, the program that keeps track of our ancestors and their data. From now on you will  be hearing a lot about TNG. Remember you need to register to see TNG (that is you need to register AGAIN, once for the website and once for TNG - this is for your privacy).

2. William Cook Halliday

This is my second cousing twice removed. For purely admin reasons his name was flagged by TNG as needing updating. I then spent a happy weekend finding out what I could about William. He was a driver in the Royal Artillery during the first world war and spent the last months of his life in Flanders in France. He died "from his wounds" in September 1918, 2 months before the end of that wasteful war and was buried in a British Forces cemetery in Northern France. His grave is anonymous, labelled as Driver William Cook Halliday, says nothing about him, his family, where he died or how he died. Nothing about his widow and family! The anonymity was because they were killing them and burying them on a production line.  1 million British and commonwealth troops were killed in WW1 and another 2.3 million were wounded. Taking all sides AND civilians into account more than 17 million people died in WW1 and another 20 million were wounded. That is more than 1/4 of the UK population now! I will keep going to see what else I can find out about William and post it on TNG.

3. Data Protection or what?

 I spent a few days over Xmas and early new year going through the online official sites of government BMDC data (Birthsm, Marriages, Deaths and Censusessss). They have all agreed that there are quite severe limits on what you can find out online and this is put down to data protection. It is agreed and accepted that the information on BMDC is public information, everyone is entitled to ask for and be given BMDC data on request (that's the law) but somehow online is classed as against data protection.  What makes it more nonsensical is that if you walk into any of the national repositories (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast or London) you can ask for and be given data on BMDC right up until the start of that year and that limit only because they don't have it yet.  

It makes me spit blood that although I enjoy my trips to the Mitchell Gallery or to GRO in Belfast, I always forget some research or run out of time and yet there is no logical reason why this cannot all be done online. Just so you know, you cannot do ANY research on English BMDC online, only indexes, to see details you need to pay (a lot) for what may well be the wrong person. At least Scotland and Ireland let you see what you want online (within the data protection! limits).

4. Martin James Kilkie and his family

 Over the holiday we had a happy connection from Craig James Kilkie, born in Nottingham and now living in Dubai with his wife and daughters. He was doing some research on his name KILKIE and had got stuck. He found our stuff on facebook and contacted me. With only a little effort we put is work and ours together and he quickly joined his group into the whole tree.  Craig is my 3rd cousin once removed (ie his dad is my 3rd cousin, or his dad and I share a common great grandfather).  There are some interesting facts in Craig's stories which are on TNG if you are interested, including - what do we do when names change, who is family? Craig's daughters are legally Alexandra KILKIE JAMES and Isla JAMES KILKIE, his wife is Carla JAMES. The reaons for the various names are both personal choices (Carla) and local legal reasons (Alexandra and Isla were born in El Salvador and the Phillipines respectively). Also Craig's dad decided to change his first name from John Gerrard to Shaun. Good stuff?

5. Kilkie or Smalls. 

As part of my research on early Derry Kilkies I have been downloading all BMDC from Belfast. I have always searched for Kilkie, Kilkey and Kilky but recently after the various facts about SMALLS = KILKIE I have added Smalls to my searches too. It gets complicated as many Smalls are nothing to do with us, particularly outside Derry, but around Derry there are a couple of SMALLS families who regularly change from that to KILKIE then back and some KILKIE who do the same in the opposite direction. Makes life interesting but may explain some of the Kilkie families left in the UK who don't seem to have a Kilkie ancestor in NI - it may have been SMALLS. I will keep looking.

6. What is left? 

There are still a few living Kilkie who are not connected into our tree. Officially our tree is a one-name study and is registered with the guild for one-name studies. This is obvious and much easier than most other names, but I am determined to join these others in or explain why not. One group is around Derby and I hope to connect them this year.

7. Other branches. 

I concentrate (200 out of 3000) on Kilkie and do branches when I have time. As Kilkie is the surname that connects us all together the site is called Kilkie. However I would be very pleased if any of us wanted to develop their own branch line. TNG allows and even encourages this. Just follow the house rules to make sure we all keep friends.

8. Photos are important.

I have been sharing all of the photos I have access to on Kilkie.org. Interestingly I have more photos of ancestors than living family. Please upload images to your family on TNG it makes the families more alive and interesting if you can see them. Remember that today's facts will be your children's history. You are able to add them yourself, but if you want you can email them to me, put them on facebook or send them to me in a shoebox and I will put them up and return the photos.

finally , best wishes and happy new year.

Martin

PS if anyone fancies a kilkie.org email address they are free to us, just let me know.

Howard is a common English language surname. Its origins are unclear. One theory is that it derived from the Norman-French personal name "Huard" or "Heward" adapting after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Another theory is that its origin may be pre 7th century Germanic from the personal name "Hughard" (prefix hug, meaning "heart"/"spirit"; suffix hard, meaning "hardy"/"brave"). Yet another theory is that the surname derived from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name "Haward" (prefix ha, meaning "high"; suffix varthr, meaning "guardian"). The first public record of the surname is dated 1221 in Cambridgeshire. There are several variant surname spellings.

Our family connection is entirely East Anglian, beginning in Wickhampton, a sleepy village outside Great Yarmouth and ending in the castles and palaces of Westminster, Greenwich and elsewhere. The royal connection between our Howards and the royal line are disputed but have strong documented evidence. Even the purely academic connections are disputed but have interesting and involved stories resulting in proven family crests given by James II of Great Britain to the "pretenders" that we are descended from.

There are a number of different family crest for Howard and we are currently researching the disputed one awarded by heralds to the instructions of James II.