I started tracing the family tree in early 2000, and what you see here is  
the majority of that work.

For some time I have resisted listing so many people, as its not easy to control, but 
have "given way" to several people who were interested in various parts of it and had 
requested I list everyone.

In obtaining this information, I have NOT downloaded anyone elses GEDCOM files, and 
in normal circumstances, don't provide GEDCOM files for other people either (that 
sounds a bit harsh, but its not meant to be that way !)

A lot of this site is about the following families-Bell, Bowsher, 
Bradley, Earl, Gilham, Hampshire, Higglesden, Igglesden, Jarvis, May, Mortley,
Swan, Upson, and  Van der Werff, although there are many others.

The name Higglesden is quite difficult to follow in places. It seems it 
started as Igglesden, before a part of the family changed it to Higglesden, 
for some reason, only for others to change from Higglesden,to Higglesdon and 
Egglesden. There are probably other variations as well. 

Many of the people are Kent based, and it seems that if you are doing any 
Kentish research at all, you sooner or later come across some of the names 
above-in particular Earl's and Hampshire's.

If you want to know how any two people are related, just click on the "People"
box at the top of the page,  then "Relationships", and just follow the
instructions-you will however need the password to use this function.

Not everybody listed here is related. There are a few "branch lines", and a fair 
number of people who I feel are related somewhere along the line , but can't 
currently fit them in. I have listed these people anyway.

It has largely been reconstructed with a combination of the valuable help of 
various family members, visits to various Records Offices,The Census 1841-
1901,  the IGI Index (with some caution hopefully),and the Internet- which 
importantly is now a very integral part of most family tree tracing. In 
particular many of the Parish Registers for the County of Kent have been 
verified by using the free City Ark site, (http://cityark.medway.gov.UK) and 
most importantly of all, a wide variety of willing people  who knew more about 
this than I did when I first started, and were prepared to offer their time, help and 
advice. I hope with a little more experience now, I may be able to help others in a 
similar way.

I have frequently quoted the URL address from the City Ark site, however the 
address is too long for the space available on this site and the display is 
incomplete. You cannot go directly into the site from this link. Contact me 
if you cannot find the full address.

I hope the information contained here is intrinsically correct, baring any 
typing errors etc of which I am just as likely as anyone to make. However there are a 
lot of people here, and it is inevitable that some mistakes have crept in. If you are 
able to correct anything, I would be pleased to hear from you.

What you see here is by no means complete. It is constantly evolving and will 
of course never be finished. Sometimes it seems its easier to get information 
on distant relatives going back hundreds of years than it is on those in the 
present day. I would liken it to trying to do a jigsaw with an unknown number 
of pieces with the picture missing on the box.

There are many people who have helped enormously, and these include-

Victor E.R.Gladwish. Much of the Gladish and assorted variations on the name 
are from Victor's Publication- 'The de Gladwyshe Family History 944-2000'- 
which runs to over 30 volumes.Victor has been researching his line for over 30 
years, and has spend many thousands of pounds in the process.

J.G.N. 'Hans' Van der Meulen from Friesland in the Netherlands who has offered 
invaluable assistance on the Dutch side.

Wayne Iggulden, in British Columbia, Canada, who knows just about 
everything there is to know about the Igglesden side and its various 
alternative spellings.
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~iggs/)

Steve Goldsmith, who has over several years, offered sound advice and 
assistance with various aspects of the Bates line. 
(http://website.lineone.net/~steve_and_jan/)

In no particular order, I would also like to thank the following people who have 
helped me enormously- Alex Prichard, Edward Airs, Andrew Bradley, Harry Beeken, Paul 
Hampshire, Kathryn Maynard, Janice O'Shea (nee Franklin), Vic Farrow, Susan 
Robitaille from Montreal in Canada, Karen Mortley, Georgina Bell, Michael Duffy, Ray 
Sewell, Mark Heptinstall, Christine St.Johanser (nee Collett) from Auckland in New 
Zealand, Steven Porter from Melbourne in Australia, and Jackie Chappell. There are 
still many more people, too numerous to mention. Apologies if I've missed anyone out !

I  have tried to protect those still living by making information on them 
password protected. If you are family, please contact me, (click the "send a message" 
button above) and I'll let you have the password which will reveal more details. 
However, I would ask that you are sensitive to concerns that some people may have 
regarding details being published on the Internet, notwithstanding that the  majority 
of the information is in the public domain anyway.

If you are able to add anything please let me know. I know some of the 
family can also help fill in some of the missing pieces, and let me have a few 
photos as well !

If you found the site helpful, (or even if you didn't !) please leave your comments 
in the GuestBook.

If you would like me to colour code your own particular line to make it easier to 
follow, just let me know.

I have plenty of space for photographs on here, so if you would like any included, 
please E Mail them to me in .JPG format, and I'll include them.

If you have an interest in either the BELL or the ROBINSON families, take a look at 
the unidentified photos (click on "Photos", at the top of the page), I found these at 
the home of Leonard Walter Bell and Edith Maud Robinson. None of them have names on, 
but logically they should be of people in the Bell or Robinson families. If you can 
name them, or even place the approximate year the photo was taken, that would be a 
great help. I'm sure everyone here remembers to put names and dates on their photos !

And finally, these details on TribalPages are imported from my own GEDCOM file which 
is from FTM 2005. Some aspects don't "translate" very well-in particular some of the 
citations are a bit garbled, so apologies for this. 


Nigel May