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I inherited much information from my late father, Norman Banting, who took up
genealogy in the late 1990's and conducted much diligent research. He visited
the Family Records Centre, several libraries, the London Metropolitan
Archive, the Army Museum, cemeteries, churches and many of the places where
the people he was researching lived. He left a notebook and many paper
records, and later on he entered his findings into a computer database -
though he still kept the roll of wallpaper which had served this
purpose previously.
Although I took no active part at this stage, I posted an outline of
the family tree on my website (the predecessor of this one) in the hope of
attracting web searchers. This led to some valuable contacts and
exchanges of information. Among the most significant were
a third cousin of my father, who had researched much of the same territory,
and a
relative of my paternal grandmother, who provided details of the Laroche family
(from which her mother came). My father took great pleasure in discovering
previously unknown relatives.
Since my father died I have attempted to corroborate his information,
making much use of online resources (something he never did) and adding to
his collection of birth, marriage and death (BMD) certificates. I have used
similar methods to investigate my mother's family.
Unfortunately he did not make a habit of fully documenting the sources of his
information.
I have not drawn on resources such as One World Tree, largely because
I am unable to confirm the accuracy of the information; in any case I see
little point in duplicating information available elsewhere. I have followed
a different policy for earlier generations of the Elks family, where the
details come from Ken Elks whose own site
lists not just his own but
other Elks families - all carefully researched.
A note on spelling
A particular problem with historical records is the variation in spelling
that is found between different sources. At a time when literacy rates were
low, officials who kept records had to make their best guess as to how a
name should be spelled.
A case in point is Emma Yeandle, whose surname appears in several different
forms: Yandell, Yandle, Yendle... I have used Yeandle because her brother
John and his descendants all spelled it that way.
Similarly, the spelling of the surname Holttum evolved into both
Holthum and Holtham. I have generally used Holttum for
consistency with other online sources (notably a One World Tree chart) but
have spelled my ancestor Alice Holthum as the name appears on birth,
marriage and death certificates.
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