Ihave no control over the ads on this WebSite -but they pay for it, so the WebSite should outlive me,
Welcome
to this Branch
of the Thornewill family
of Burton-on-Trent
The creator of this WebSite is me, Robin Clay.
Sorry, but – I am a Clay, not a Thornewill.
My father’s father, Gerard Clay, was married to Ella Violet Thornewill, my paternal grandmother, hence my interest in the Thornewill family, and hence this WebSite.
Ancestors
Roughly speaking, there are three generations per century – one child, two parents from two different families, and four grandparents from four different families. The number of surnames thus doubles with each generation, so a thousand years ago, ten centuries ago, we all have 2 to the power 30, about 1500 million, ancestors. The population of Britain then was about 2 million, so in your family tree, each of those two million will appear about 750 times. But, apart from Royalty and the Nobility, very few families can trace back that far. One of those few is the Arden family, see below.
Surnames
Surnames are a relatively recent invention – about a thousand years ago. Some surnames are derived from occupations – Baker, Chandler, Wright – while some derived from a personal attribute – Armstrong, Foot. Others from natural features – Hill, Field – or flora – Rose, Berry – or fauna – Sparrow, Salmon. Two people bearing the same surname such as these are not necessarily related, though they might be.
My earlist known Thornewill ancestor
I do not know the origin of the surname Thornewill. Until about 200 years ago, spelling was not standardised. There are people bearing names such as Thorniwell, who may or may not be related far back ("Thorny Well" does seem a likely origin). Curiously, the Registrar General's records have, for the name Thorniwell, only six entries since 1837 :-
Surname First name(s) District
Death Sep 1855 Thorniwell Thomas Stoke T.
Death Dec 1860 THORNIWELL Elizabeth Atherstone
Marriage Sep 1882 Thorniwell William Burton
Surname First name Mother/Spouse District
Marriage Mar 1929 Thorniwell Charles Chadderton Burton
Birth Mar 1935 Thorniwell Eric G Stubbs Burton
Marriage Sep 1951 THORNIWELL Bryan I MORRISSEY Derby
It is, of course, entirely possible that these are mis-spellings !
Note the name of this WebSite - "A Thornewill Tree" - which (at the moment) starts with the earliest Thornewill ancestor that my grandfather or father was able to establish, one
Thomas Thornewill, who died in 1548.
And No, I have not checked; I take their word.
CLAYs
As a Clay, my prime objective was a WebSite for the CLAY family. My grandfather Gerard Clay did much research into his ancestry, and this was carried on by his son, Gervas Clay, my father. The results of their research were all on paper - one copy, which I have - so I felt it was my job to make their results more widely available, by creating appropriate WebSites.
ARDENs
Agnes Lucy ARDEN was the mother of my grandfather Gerard Clay, so Violet Thornewill's mother-in-law. About 1960, the husband of a distant Arden cousin investigated the Arden family, and sent my father a copy of his efforts, but as far as I have been able to find out, it was never published, so I have made a WebSite for it. The Arden name is one of those very few that can be traced back to the Norman Conquest – and beyond.
THORNEWILLs
The male line of this branch ended when my grandmother Violet’s half-brother Robbie died unmarried and childless, so that is my excuse for trespassing onto the Thornewill terrain.
World Record
In 2001 a news item reported that a new World First had been created - the first married couple to reach both South and North Poles. The couple are Mike and Fiona Thornewill, who reached the South Pole on 4 January 2000, and the North Pole on 6 May 2001. Fiona has done more record-breaking, but she was not born into the Thornewill family but her husband Michael was.
Records of Births, Marriages and Deaths (B, M, D)
Since 1837, all Births, Marriages and Deaths in England and Wales have to be registered at a Registry Office, and at the end of each Quarter they submit the data to the Registrar General. These quarterly returns are being transcribed by a team of volunteers, and placed on a WebSite so that the information is available to all, for free. The WebSite tells you how, with that information, you can obtain a copy of the relevant Certificate, which may contain much more information.
Scotland has a similar WebSite, provided for free by the Scottish Government.
Irish records were mostly destroyed during the uprising in 1920.
From the FreeBMD WebSite
Search for Births
Surname: Thornewill
First name(s): Michael
Q Year Surname First name(s) Mother District
Dec 1962 THORNEWILL Michael L ELLIS Nottingham
That is the Record maker. His marriage is too recent to have been transcribed, but these are his parents:-
Search for Marriages
Surname: Thornewill
Spouse surname: ELLIS
Start date: Mar 1955
Q Year Surname First name(s) Spouse District
Jun 1958 ELLIS Hilda M THORNEWILL Basford
THORNEWILL Peter L G ELLIS Basford
And then what happened ?
This report of the new World Record prompted me to do a little research, and I found that there were many Thornewills still in the Burton-on-Trent area – and also one in America, who turned out to be Mark, the grandson of Violet’s father Robert’s brother Arthur, i.e. Mark was my father’s second cousin. And his children, my third cousins. I wrote to them. Mark replied, and later he came to England and stayed with us. As did a son and his family.
A cause for joy.
. . . and now ?
Click here
A Thornewill Tree
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