Other Research Interests

Besides Elkin, my other family history research interests include;

Bamford	Staffordshire and Cheshire
Billinge	Staffordshire
Brammar Bramer	Staffordshire
Burton	Marylebone, London
Darling	Northumberland and Staffordshire
Dutton	Staffordshire and Cheshire
Hammersley	Staffordshire
Leveson-Gower	Staffordshire, Berkshire, London, Surrey and Sutherland
Snaith	Sussex
Stanway Stanaway	Staffordshire

By Staffordshire I particularly mean North Staffordshire. This area includes the pottery towns of Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, and the surrounding market towns of Leek and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Darling

My great-great grandfather, James Darling, was born in North Shields, Northumberland in 1811. He married Margaret Binns at Tynemouth in 1834, and after living on Tyneside for about ten years moved first to Cottingham in Yorkshire, and then to Trent Vale in Staffordshire, where my great-grandmother, Mary Darling, was born in 1852.

James Darling was the son of William Darling and Ann Turnbull, who lived at Embleton in north Northumberland, an area where the Darling family is well established.

As the adjoining parish of Bamburgh was the home of the famous Grace Darling, I have also researched her family. I have not been able to find any connection, indeed the lighthouse keeping Darling's are relative newcomers to Northumberland, having moved there from Berwickshire, across the border in Scotland, in the mid 18th century.

Dutton

My great-grandfather, George Dutton, was a farmer in Norton, Staffordshire. Finding out his background was a challenge, and some years ago I wrote up some details of the search to share with relatives. I think that this document provides a useful guide into some of the sources available for researching in 19th century England, so I've reproduced it here.

Leveson-Gower

I'm not related to this family but became interested in them because they owned Trentham Hall, and were lords of the manor of Trentham where my Elkin ancestors originated. My interest grew when I discovered that one branch of the family came to the parish of Easthampstead in Berkshire, where I now live. I have created this family tree of the Leveson-Gower's by combining information from Burkes Peerage and Debrett's with the standard family history sources such as the 1881 census.

Stanway

The photograph shows my grandfather Alfred Farrell Stanway with his father, Alfred Stanway, and his grandfather Levi Stanway.

Levi was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1831, the youngest son of William and Hannah Stanway. William and Hannah were both born in 1788, and married in 1806, but I have not yet found details of their marriage or parents.

The surname appears interchangably as Stanway and Stanaway in earlier records.

My brother Jim is interested in military history, and has researched our grandfather's service in the first World War with the Royal Field Artillery.

Last updated: 22nd Nov 2000