Welcome to A Family History Blog. This website is being created and edited by Matt Walker. I’m now in my early 40’s, and live in Norfolk, UK.
I’ve been interested in my family history for a number of years. I have gathered together a lot of research (trees, etc.) done by many other people, and have from time to time done research of my own, to verify that done by others, and to add to it where I can.
My primary motivation for creating this site is to share the details of some very old family documents. My concern is that if these documents are held in just one small part of the family, then how will other people, in the wider family (with a shared ancestry, and a shared interest in documents about their ancestors) get to know or hear about such documents, or about the family details that they can contain (such as evidence for family relationships that may be difficult to demonstrate from other records alone). These documents and the details they contain could remain unknown to many people who would be interested in researching these family histories.
While I was looking back through some of my own family history notes, and through some very old family documents, in January 2014, I thought that it might be good to create a website to share the details of these old documents with whoever else might be interested in them. So here is that website.
I aim to share these documents here, to help others in their family research, and to demonstrate some of the sources of my research, which (in some cases) lead to conclusions that differ from those that others (apparently relying only on records like parish registers) have posted on-line!
To see an overview of the families that I’m interested in, and that are the subjects of this website, please click HERE. The easiest way for you to find the people, families, or places that will interest you most on this site is to use the Tags box or the Categories list (both on the right-hand side of this website). Clicking on the name(s) that interest you, will take you to all the blog posts that relate to that name.
To give you some sense of where my families come from, both my grandfathers were from predominately Scottish origins, while both grandmothers had predominately English origins (with one or two distant hints of Welsh too).
I hope that this can become a very collaborative website, with lots of relatives adding details of the information that they have, and the research that they’ve done into our shared ancestors.
This website does not (and may never) contain all the information that I have about my family tree (due to the amount of material as much as anything). The information on this site initially reflects the information I have saved in the “Family Tree Maker” program on my computer. But that may not represent the full scope of information that I have on paper. Also I expect to withhold some of the information I have, from the public domain (this website), for use in helping to validate information that others may provide me with.
You can read more about why I’m creating this family history blog HERE.
From past blogging experience I can say that I’m not a regular blogger. So you may see big gaps between my blog posts! Also my research tends to be done in fairly short bursts. I expect that this site will begin with lots and lots of posts in quite a short time, and then go quiet for rather a long time!
Please read a few key notes about this website and how the information on it is presented, on the About page.
Thanks.
A Family History Blog 
Hi Matt ! I just started making a web site in wordpress. I’m computer literate, but I think I probably could have done better with a different approach! I was excited to come across you. You are more than welcom to link us together if you want…. I quickly glanced, however don’t see any Ellistons. am I not seeing it, or is it not one of your people? If not, ignore this comment. Have a Blessed Day!!
ellistonfamily@wordpress.com
my personal email is rustymoon@live.com
Best
Dolly Elliston-Sharpe
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Hello Dolly. I’ve looked at your site. It looks like a good start. I spent a year setting up my website, choosing and customising the design template, etc, and another year developing the content, before making it public. I think that people sometimes go public with a new website too soon, before they’ve created some interesting content for others to see! Better to incubate it for a while and develop the content before going public, unless you’re committed to regularly making new posts, daily or weekly!
I’ve previously used both wordpress and blogger (from Google) for websites for various projects, and my view of which is better has changed back and forth as both have developed and changed. Other services are also available (which I haven’t used). But I’m currently very happy with WordPress.
I don’t have any family called Ellison! I mentioned “Ellison” as a place (one of several spelling variations), in West Lothian, Scotland, in a post about the neighbouring property of Kilpunt, where my Walker family farmed. Does your Elliston family have any connection to the place Elliston/Illiston?
Thanks.
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Hi Matt, my great great grandmother was Isabella Hutchison (1811-1885), mother of Sir Robert Balfour (Liberal MP for Partick). My mother (who died last year aged 101) said that William Oliphant Hutchison was a cousin and she used to stay with the Hutchisons (Douglas perhaps?) at Bolfracks. I’ve written a bit about her on my blog https://campaignerkate.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/my-mums-centenary/
Do let me know if you know the connection between Isabella and William. Many thanks.
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Hello Kate,
I found the piece about your mother last June, and left a comment there. I believe that your Isabella Hutchison was a sister of Robert Hutchison (grandfather of William Oliphant Hutchison – who was my Gt-grandfather). Douglas Hutchison, of Bolfracks, was a Great Grandson of Robert Hutchison, and a “second cousin” of my grandfather. Douglas compiled a family tree in the 1980’s, of the descendants of Robert Hutchison, which I have details of. I’ll e-mail you with more details, and hope that you can tell me more about your side of the family. Thanks.
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