Getting started … again
January 28th, 2008Some years ago, i published the results of my parent’s research into our family history on www.tomkins.net. It was quite a popular site, especially amongst my own family but also got a lot of hits and comments from others looking to make connections with their branch of Tomkins.
With a move of ISPs and losing the files that i used to maintain the web site, it had gotten into a state of disrepair.
Unfortunately, my uncle Alcwyn died recently and i traveled back to the UK for the funeral. There was a wonderful gathering in his memory and so naturally, i met up with my wider family – it was great to see so many cousins, uncles and aunts as well as my own immediate family who are distant across the water in the UK. I also met my Great Uncle Alcwyn from Barry, South Wales and enjoyed listening to the wonderful stories he had to share.
Well at such a family gathering, it was inevitable that the subject of the web site would come up again. I was actually surprised to find out that the site was still available on the web and accessible – i had thought it was long gone since stopped using that ISP where the site was hosted. I found it thanks to Google and rescued the files from it. When in the UK, i took a copy of the original genealogy files from my Dad’s PC.
It’s my plan to revitalise that site on here – the times have changed and there are new technologies available. I am using blogging software here and i plan to use PHPGEDView for the family genealogy. It’s going to take a little more time to get it up and running however the new technologies now allow many to update the site through their browser – so i hope that we’ll see a lot more historic contributions from others. Watch this space on that.
When i originally published the site back in about 2000-2001, i also was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of Matthew Tompkins from Leicestershire in England. Matthew is a lawyer turned historian who had done some amazing research into the Origins of the names Tomkins and Tompkins.
Matthew and i collaborated to publish his work which is a definitive paper on the Origins of our family name. I’ve rescued this and have put it on this site already. Just follow the link above.
Matthew also wrote a few smaller interesting pieces on Heraldry and famous Tomkins in history that i have also republished here.
I think that this could be a really exciting resource for those sharing the Tomkins/Tompkins name. If anyone has interesting features that you would like to include and you’d like to contribute then please drop me an email – either i would be happy to publish your contribution or i would be delighted to give you a userid on this blog and you can make your contributions directly. If you have any other ideas on how we can use this resource then please let me know.
Glyn Tomkins, January 2008.