Introduction

(Taken from: The Whites - Derbyshire to Liverpool. By John White 2008

According to our research to date the roots of the White line of the family run from Liverpool back to Derbyshire. We’ve had soldiers and carters, self-made businessmen and warehousemen, an employee on a country estate, a travelling salesman, Druggists XE "Druggists" and at least three consecutive generations of farmers. Throughout, there have been the expected successes and failures, the unexpected heart-breaking tragedies, plus some family mysteries waiting to be solved.

Family research can open up some dark places indeed

; so much so that many people, will XE "will" avoid entering into the past at all for fear of opening up embarrassing or just plain distressing facts about their ancestors’ lives. Tantalising for me, is the image formed of the three brothers and their large successful business venture in Liverpool and the wealth that it obviously provided them while it was in operation. I’m very surprised to learn of such ancestral heads for business. Perhaps the social situation from which one emerges gives that added push.

The instigators of the research in our family have really been my Auntie Erna and uncle Don G., prompted by an ad in the Liverpool Echo in 2003, placed by a total stranger named Ann N., She was seeking information on a ‘pickling’ factory XE "factory" in Everton owned by the White family. Her Grandfather was Charles Henry White son of Thomas White and the unfortunate Phoebe Ellen Wells, who you’ll read a little about later. Unfortunately, it seems that Jack (John) White, my grandfather didn’t seem very forthcoming about his ancestors and thus far in our research, we’ve found no reason for his reticence. Obviously we know next to nothing of the actual personalities of these people, whether they were good, bad or indifferent. It seems to me that it may be a family trait of just leaving the past in the past and getting on with things. I’ll say one thing though; an impression that Erna and I’ve gleaned is that of a charitable nature amongst members of the family - towards its own at any rate but in one particular case: towards the community. I mentioned this to Erna and she said knowingly, “Ah yes, so you noticed that did you?” More on that later.

Principal sources to date have been Erna G., Ann N, John Arthur White and Lorna J. Plus the following online resources:

Ancestry.co.uk, freeBMD.co.uk, Genuki.org.uk and Liverpool genealogy.

Also helpful of late have been Sheila R., who replied to my email with much fascinating information. There’s probably more to come; she contributes a lot to genuki.org.uk.

Erna G., and Ann N., have trawled the Local and National Archives - they’re lucky to have such easy access - in their pursuit of the various available certificates and census information. Being able to physically access these resources and obtain copies of documents is a great facility. They’ve also visited numerous graveyards. Thanks to which Thomas Wells White and his family now have a neat plot festooned with daffodils every spring; no longer forgotten, bleak and hard to find.

Particular thanks to Erna for her time on the telephone during which I’ve been fascinated by her findings; so if any other family members feel inspired to dig in and do some seeking and contributing of their own, please feel free. I’ll be eager to hear of their anecdotes.

This is an ongoing project open to any participant; and I plan to get it organised in electronic form so that it can be viewed and updated on computer. It’ll accessible from anywhere in the world on a website - if nobody has any objections - and will XE "will" possibly be distributed annually on CD-Rom to all family units. The advantage of putting it in the public domain is that on the internet, other researchers will find it and get in touch, seeking or offering further information. This has been proved by Tim Holt’s response to my message posted on Ancestry.co.uk. I was really inspired to learn about our ancestral roots when we were in Merseyside XE "Merseyside" two years ago for Fred White’s funeral; as you know funerals are so often the catalyst for genealogy as talk will inevitably turn to the family roots. Those, like me who have been absent for so long become particularly nostalgic and longingly feel those little holes in their history that want filling. It was an amazing experience to see - for the first time - faces of the ancestors returning one’s gaze from across the years in the black and white photographs that Erna and Don have carefully mounted in albums. As part of this project, I’d like to get all of those scanned and available to all family members for printing whenever and wherever. Perhaps all those other distant relatives will submit theirs too. We can swap, and who knows what they have?

Anyway enough of this, lets get down to the story that we have so far.

(To be continued…)