THE BARRATT FAMILY HISTORY
BACKGROUND
This is a condensed version of the ancestry of the Barratts of New Balderton. (Balderton is a village next to Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.) It features contemporary photographs and documents.
I started working on our family tree in the 1980s, with my late brother David. I live in Australia; he lived in England. The quest started with names and dates, but I made up my mind to write 'all we know about our ancestors'. The resultant books grew in size. The last one-volume version, in 2003, had about 125 pages, A4 size, plus lots of charts.
Since linking to the Internet, to celebrate my 65th birthday, I've been able to dig out a great deal more information, fill gaps, expose myths, solve mysteries, and take skeletons out of cupboards. Along the way, I have found or have been found by about 25 distant cousins, who helped in this long and complex process. I have also been able to heal a family feud which started in 1920, involving relations I didn't even know we had.
Between September 2004 and March 2005, I produced ten little (A5) books for family members. Each dealt with a person or a theme, and updated 'all we know about our ancestors'. This sub-website is a condensed version of what is in the 400+ pages of those books. I have left out a lot of detail, and limited the number of graphics. Tree charts have been simplified. Living people are not fully identified. There are no details of my siblings or the next three generations. This is in keeping with the protocol of family tree information on the Net. Thirty-four of my parents' descendants are still living, at the time of compiling these notes.
For about 300 years of story behind 'the Balderton Barratts', click your way through this menu.
MENU
William Barret and William Shakespeare
John Barrett & Thomas Barratt of Oxford University
My great-grandfather William Barratt of London
My grandfather William George Barratt, early life
William George Barratt at Radley College
William George Barratt in service at Hexgrave Hall
William George Barratt at the Bishop's palace, Southwell
William George Barratt moves from stately homes to a pub at Burton on Trent
My father William Barratt's childhood
William Barratt, the dashing young man
William Barratt: The years of tragedy
My mother Doris Barratt née Wilson
The Wilsons, banana merchants of Newark
The Armstrong line and the Gypsy
Francis Morley's last letter 1 2 3
WORK IN PROGRESS. MORE MIGHT BE ADDED LATER.
If you subscribe to the website GenesReunited, you'll be able to see a more complete tree. If you don't already subscribe, I strongly recommend that you do — it doesn't cost much, and there are tens of millions of names plus a secure way of getting in touch with possible relations.
If you think you are somehow related and would like to contact me, you will find my address on my main website The Brain Rummager at http://www.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/ Please provide me with the names, dates and places associated with your own forebears, indicating that you are sending a legitimate enquiry. Vague enquiries are not very helpful.
Brian Barratt, Melbourne, Australia, June 2005
Last edited on 16 August, 2006