The Clarke Family Tree

Welcome to the family tree of the Clarke family, although very little of the tree is about the Clarke Family which soon disappears from the record. This site is designed to bring together the information available on different branches of my family. The two main strands of the tree relate to my mother's family. Betty Joan Griggs father was descended from one of the largest Blacksmith families around the Canterbury and South-East Kent Area. Her Mother Jessie Elizabeth Saunders provides the start or some may say the end of the Middlesex genealogy. My father's ancestry proves somewhat more challenging and any contributions to that genealogy will be gratefully received.

The Middlesex research centres mainly on the relatively small geographic area of the parishes of Northolt and Greenford, whilst the Kent research has a far wider spread within one quadrant of the county.

Some do say we are all related to Constantine but for many years my research discovered only yeomen, farmers and agricultural labourers, some quite wealthy but none of great renown or significance in history. This all changed when I discovered and transcribed the will of Henry Twyman which led to the identification of his wife’s relationship to a family in Kent who were landed gentry. This connection led to many links to historical characters and Royalty being discovered as will be seen elsewhere on the site.

My research started back in 1995 before the advent of the internet and the spread of genealogy to online resources. I spent many hours in the London Metropolitan Archives going through registers page by page either using original sources or microfilm. The arrival of indexed census was still to come so those that were available were found in the basement of Chancery Lane. By slowly rolling through film of a census area a relative and family might be found. Strange how elusive they could be though.

This patient and dogged methodology taught me all the necessary skills to conduct genealogical research with a high standard of skill and was backed up with the necessary text books when needed. I am therefore confidant that the direct lines of my ancestry as accurate as possible. No family researcher should ever be so dogmatic as to assume that no mistakes occur as the further back you go the less evidence is available so occasionally you go with the best information available.

It is my intention to grow this website so it will continually evolve and expand, anyone with links to the tree will be welcome to contribute information and to take information. I believe in sharing and that is the advantage of the modern internet as regards genealogy. Its disadvantage is that mistake can multiply. Please let me know if you have information that may add to the accuracy of these records.