One of the pleasures of being retired has been spending the past twelve months or so researching my family history. I joined Ancestry.co.uk and was hooked. The roots of my family tree stretch back to the 1600s, and reveal generation upon generation of English commonfolk from the Midlands, Yorkshire and North of England. I have not been able to go back any further than about 1580.
In 1679 one of my 7th great grandfathers was born in a little village called Heddon on the Wall, Northumberland. ('The Wall' referring to
Hadrian's Wall). I learned that his grave still exists in a nearby village called Kirkwhelpington and thought it would be an experience to visit the area he lived in.
We made a bee-line for the
7th Century St. Andrew's Church which was added to by the Normans. Here we found the medieval oak chest which had housed the church documents. It has three locks, 3 different people having a key to one of them. The priest had the middle one. The documents are now kept somewhere else. My 7th G.GFather was baptised here, in the Saxon font no doubt. I was so enraptured by the experience which I had been looking forward to for months that I didn't take enough photos. There are some excellent ones if you click on the link.
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KIRKWHELPINGTON
Where I remembered to take more photos.
Gravestone of 7th GGF, who lived to be 88. He is buried with his brother who died in the same year aged 84 in 1759. The family were here for about 125 years and there are four gravestones with lots of beautiful inscriptions. Several of the family were stonemasons and carpenters. The family moved to Long Benton, near Newcastle upon Tyne.
