The Holts and Related Whitby Families


My interest in Whitby was sparked by my discovering I was descended from the Holt familiy, who were sailors, master mariners, shipbuilders and ship-owners there for about 150 years. I have researched into their lives and times, which has also involved me finding out a lot about other Whitby families who were connected to the Holts through marriage or business. It is a time-consuming process, and putting the information on-line is almost as time-consuming; but I hope (in time) these pages will contain a lot of information of interest to a number of people. Please be patient, and keep looking on this site to see if and how it has been updated

My personal way of storing information about my family history is to write individual little biographies (biogs) which tell their story, and seek to add a bit of contemporary context. Please click on the surname you are interested in, this will take you to a list of names and links to the relevant biogs. These pages are being added to bit by bit.

The Holts and related families of Whitby
Boulby
Campion

Coates
Holt
Lacy
Linskell
Lotherington
Miller/Millar
Moorsom
Reynolds
Richardson
Skinner
Storm

Other people who are mentioned in some of the family biogs
Several other people are mentioned briefly in these biogs. I have tried to include all of those for whom I have both a forename and a surname, and who lived, or were closely connected with, Whitby and its environs. To see the list of names click here


Whitby ships
For a list of the ships mentioned and links to the biogs in which they appear click here



I am in the process of posting some information about some of these families on this page. If you have any of these names in your family, please contact me.

My researches of ancestors in Whitby has led to me being  fascinated by the history of that town, particularly the merchant ships, their builders, sailors, masters and owners. I have set up a group for people interested in Whitby and its history.

A Word about Copyright
Although I retain the copyright on the material posted here and any photographs that I have taken, I am happy for anyone to use them for their own family history research. If you pass material on to others, I request that you attribute your source.
However, the etchings of John Holt, Martha Holt (nee Storm), and Margaret Campion are the work of the artist Harvey Taylor, and you must not reproduce them without permission from me or from him, who jointly retain the copyright..


The reason why I should be Stephen Holt and not Stephen Baines is that my gt-gt-grandfather in the direct paternal line was John Holt, whose father (also John Holt) died on a whaling voyage on the William & Ann in 1815, leaving three children of whom John was the youngest. His mother Elizabeth (née Miller) married again, and in time young John took the surname of his step-father Matthew Baines.