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Ron & Betty Anthony's Home Page
Welcome to our Home Page. It is chiefly concerned with our interest in genealogy and family history and, at present, is in a simple form indicating our main family lines. We would welcome any views on its usefulness and any suggestions for improvement.
This page was last updated 20 April 2005
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From Betty's ancestry, The Newtons
contact, ronanthony at aol.com
We would be pleased to hear from anyone with the same name interests, or with interests in the same areas of the country (see 'Current Projects' and 'Family Trees').
Our Family Histories
We have been researching our families' histories for some ten years. Much of our work has concerned Betty's (née Croft) family. A relative had carried out work on Ron's family. Betty's ancestors hail mainly from Dumfrieshire, Scotland, and the English counties of Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent and Suffolk - Ron's from the English counties of Derbyshire and Suffolk, (see under Family Trees and Current Projects).
We are continuing with our family history research with occasional forays to record offices. We have managed to trace our family histories back to the early 18C in most lines and in some cases earlier, (see the Family Trees) but inevitably (we think) have found obstacles to further progress. There are also several stubborn dead ends. Some of these problems are being overcome but progress is slow. Our researches have also accumulated considerable 'spare' information on the names associated with our families, albeit only for those parts of England and Scotland from where our families originated. We have corresponded with many people, in many parts of the world, to our mutual benefit.
Other Projects
Ron belongs to several Family History Societies and some of his 'family history' time is spent in assisting in those Societies' projects, such as indexing parish registers, census records and monumental inscriptions.
Membership of Other Societies
Ron is a member of the North West Kent FHS, the Kent FHS, the London & North Middlesex FHS, the Dumfries and Galloway FHS, the Lincolnshire FHS, the Suffolk FHS and the Society of Genealogists .
Ron was born in Wortham, Suffolk, but the family moved to the North West Kent area in the 1930s. He is a retired Civil Servant from the UK's Health and Safety Executive, where he was concerned with industrial safety policy and latterly for nuclear and other 'major hazard' industries. Since retiring from the Civil Service he has been a self employed Safety and Engineering Consultant. He was in the Army from 1943-48, and attended the Imperial College of Science and Technology, 1948-50. On leaving college he spent some years in the aircraft industry on high speed aircraft and missiles, and then joined the nuclear power industry.
Betty was born in Wandsworth, London. Her family also moved to the North West Kent area in the 1930s.
Our local Family History Society is the North West Kent Family History Society. It is a very thriving Society and this is reflected in its web site, which includes details of the parishes covered, including church photos in most cases, and a map of the area. The site includes information on Society meetings, which take place in three centres, Bromley, Dartford and Sevenoaks. There are also sections on members interests (names which members are researching), publications for sale and information on how to join the Society.
Ron was at one time editor of the Society's quarterly Journal and now edits a monthly news sheet for one of the Society's Branches.
Kent Family History Society, Kent FHS, Covers the areas where many of Betty's ancestors hail from.
Lincolnshire Family History Society. Lincolnshire is the origin of the Betty's Croft ancestry.
Cyndi's List This a very useful list containing several thousand useful links to other sources.
Steve Archer ,is a member of North West Kent FHS, and produces very useful programs for the family historian, including IGIRead and LDSCompanion, both of which convert IGI or Gedcom data (including 1881 census data) into forms suitable for use in databases and spreadsheets. He also produces GenMapUK which, again from IGI or Gedcom information, produces maps showing where your family's events occurred.
David Cufley, also a member of North West Kent FHS, has a Cufley one-name study, and also keeps databases of brick makers and ratcatchers.