27 August 2025

What’s in a name? Dealing with surnames in particular is very difficult. If record each person with the surname on their birth certificate and they change it on their marriage certificate or on the birth certificate of their children – which one do we pick. It matters because the database combines all the Kilkies or Hallidays or McGhees based on their surnames and if there are 5 variations then you get 5 different “families.

The problem arose most recently when it transpired that some of the McNally individuals had McInally on their certificates but it appears in Kilkie-Kilkey-Kielky, in Halliday-Holliday, in McGee-McGhee etc etc.

The solution we will use is that we will keep a common surname (most likely the modern one) and use that for all historical individuals but use an AKA on their personal page. Women will continue to be named by their birth surname.

26 June 2025

One month later than planned we have completed merged the two sides of our family story into one site with one login and one logout. You need to remember your username and password but one login gives you access to both sites. At the same time we have made sure that everyone with an account on kilkie.org (this side) has exactly the same acount on the family tree (kilkie.org/tng). To further improve things you always log in by going to Kilkie.org and if you accidentally go to kilkie.org/tng you will be bounced over.

30 May 2025

News that we had merged the two websites into one, with one login and one password were as usual premature. Testing showed that some trivial but important details were wrong, i.e. you couldnt actually logon no matter what you tried. So one step forward, two steps back. We will get there and perhaps in 2025!

14 September 2023

All announcements (Births, deaths, marriages, engagements, obituaries…) can be added by any family member from the relevant menu.

1 September 2023

Added new Announcements section which will let family make announcements of births, marriages, engagements, general changes and obituaries. I am working in making this all doable from the menu.

24 August 2023

Kilkie.org has changed:The site needed updating. Like most designs, what was fashionable has become old hat. The new design also works better on a tablet or phone.

I have changed the way our family history is shown. There are still a number of KILKIE family trees on Ancestry.com but for privacy reasons most of us are happier to keep more personal details and facts with within the family.

The family history program is separate and is called “The Next Generation Genealogy sitebuilder” or just “TNG” It is produced by an excellent US programmer called Darrin Lythgoe. Darrin not only writes the program but has organised support and resources that should mean we can use his program for a LONG time. The only slight downside to the separation of stories and facts is they are completely separate websites, which means you have to login to TNG after you have logged into the main site. (Once your computer notices this you should get this done automatically by most browsers).

What’s on Kilkie.org/TNG:

TNG is where all the facts and trees are kept. All the birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates and censuses (censi?) from 1841-1939 are there. Over time family members should feel happy adding all their photographs and memorabilia as a way of protecting them against the ravages of time and sharing them with future generations of the family. Remember that your shoebox of photos will likely be thrown out if you dont label them. In addition photos on TNG can be shared so you dont need to worry about only giving then to one person.

TNG encourages more than one “branch” of the tree, which I hope means that individuals might take ownership of their own particular branch and add and develop this over time. As I get older I need someone to help keep the site going or future generations will lose all the work.

What’s on Kilkie.org?

The website Kilkie.org is a place for us to share stories and memories that don’t fit with the fact based view of family history sites. The story about my Uncle John and the two TVs wouldnt fit on any family history site, but it tells you a lot about John and his generosity. What we need is more of us put up stories from our childhood or memories. Anyone wishing to put up a story, recipe, memory but lacking in confidence just needs to send it to me by email and I will put it up under your name or show you how to do it yourself.

What if I make a mistake?

I start by making all new users guests, who can look but cannot change anything, but as they (you) become more confident I look forward to adding the ability for you to add and update stories and family facts. The separate HELP pages will become a FAQ helping family members to get used to the private side of the site but I also hope that most of it is self-explanatory.

At present the most developed branches are KILKIE, FIELD, HALLIDAY and LLOYD. This is not preferential treatment just that that’s my side and Sarah’s side. Please do get involved and volunteer to manage your own branch (BOYLE, KELLY, DOCHERTY etc). Over the years (decades) I have learnt quite a lot about how to find out about historical family members and I will be glad to help any family member who wants to get their own branch developed but doesnt feel able. The BOYLE branch is quite well developed due to the efforst of Tommy Boyle and Ros Docherty has similarly added a lot to the DOCHERTY branch and Robbie Kilkie from Pollokshaws/Ashford has added a lot to that side of the Kilkies.

FINALLY

PLEASE contribute, make suggestions and add your stories, photos and events. It is our site and I am proud and privileged to keep it running – but without wider family input it will become dry and useless. I do worry that a lot of things get forgotten between generations because we don’t get around to organising them and passing them on. How many photographs in shoeboxes in your house that none of your children/grandchildren know who is in them?

Martin Kilkie, 30 August 2023, Gravesend, Kent