This website has been built to record the ancestry of the Whitby family. Sadly I started my research in 2000 after both my parents, James Francis Whitby and Phyllis Dartan-Delecolle had passed away. I was intrigued by the notes and references to family members that I found amongst my mother's documents and motivated to discover more. Now years after that initial discovery, the project has extended far beyond my expectations and still continues. Whilst I have endeavoured to validate all my data and to ensure that my sources are cited correctly, to err is human. Please contact me if you find any errors or would like further details of my sources or the basis for my assumptions.
Initially I did not intend to publish my work but I have learnt much from the published work of others. In particular I'm very grateful to Louise and Paul Shapcott of Italy for sharing their work on the Shapcott family, which enabled me to connect my branch into their work. I'm also indebted to John Cardinal for providing the excellent software with which I have built this website. My work also incorporates the work of Steve Medley of Brisbane who contributed another branch of the Shapcotts, Vivienne Hawken of Auckland who has provided a second branch to the Webb family and the combined efforts of Bronwyn Clark of Hobart and myself on the Thomson and Clark families.
Our families were ordinary folk whose lives reflect the significant changes occurring in England during the three or more centuries that I have researched so far. They came from different parts of England and France to live and to work in the great metropolis of London. At the begining of the eighteenth century the Whitbys were in Lancashire and the Starrs were relatively close to London in parts of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. My maternal grandfather's family, the Delecolles were in Villers-Bocage in Picardy, France, the Shapcotts moved from Devon into other parts of the West Country, whilst my maternal grandmother's family, the Webbs appear to have been in the Home Counties around London for many centuries. I believe that sometimes a knowledge of where we came from helps bring understanding and increased tolerance in our own lives, certainly it makes history seem very real and personal.
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Version 5-0 Upgraded software to TMG Release 9 and Second Site Release 5. Added further Webb family details from Peter Tervet.
Version 4-1 April 2011 Corrected data and formatting errors and extended the descendants of James Otis Phillips, courtesy of the research by Deb Cooper and Bonnie Snyder, and the family of George Clark Rout, thanks to Carolyn Matthews' work.
Also added some presentations given on the 1st Unlock the Past Cruise 2011 and at the Brisbane TMG Users meeting.
Version 4-0 Jul 2010 Added the families of Thomson and Clark (from Bronwyn Clark)
Version 3-0 Sep 2009 Added the families of John Webb (from Vivienne Hawken) and Dorothy Shapcott (from Steve Medley).
Version 2-1 Aug 2009 Added Key Historical Events
Version 2-0 Jul 2009 Added Google Mapping
Version 1-0 First release March 2009