Whitburn Durham request

[sillgen]

Wilk47 has not been on Rootschat since Dec 2011.    You could try sending a personal message via the letter icon under their user name but if the email address has changed then that will not work.  Many years ago it was possible to look at original registers at Durham.   If they were filmed you could get a printed copy.   Maybe they were there pre-internet days?

[bartonbeach]

Thanks for the advice.

[joanyjojo]

Hello I have only just found this site - I am currently researching William Wilkinson of Whitburn as I have been told by a cousin that he is my 4th x great grandfather - I live close to Whitburn and have been to visit his grave and look at the house he had built (Whitburn House) - do you have any information you are able to share - my grandfathers name was Menter Wilkinson but we died when my father Norman Stoker Wilkinson was a child so he knew very little about his father
Any help on any of this would be great - hope you are still researching
many Thanks
Joan

[sillgen]

Hi and welcome,
If you reply to this then it should activate our personal message system and you can contact posters privately by clicking on the letter icon under the user name.   If they have not been online for some time that is often a better way.

[joanyjojo]

Hi thanks for your reply My Grandfather was Menter (note the spelling of the name with an 'e' rather than an 'o'.  he was born "around 1900" according to the record I have seen - I have him in a census aged 11 living at Ann Street which I believe is or was in Hendon Sunderland.
Menter married Jane Stephenson in June 1927 and they had 3 children: Joan I'm named after her),
Raymond and my father Norman.  All three children were given the middle name of Stoker and I have been told by a cousin that this was because somewhere in the family tree - possibly Menter's mother was called Sarah Stoker.
Menter sadly died at age 44 leaving Jane (who we all knew as Nanna Jenny) to bring up her 3 children alone.  she did remarry some years later.
I think the connection to this line of descent came because of the unusual Christian name of Menter and also the connection with the middle name of Stoker.
I am exploring lots of options but according to my cousin we are in some way connected to the original William Wilkinson and I have now just seen that his father was called Thomas to I'm pleased to have been able to go back even further.  It was very interesting to visit Whitburn Parish church and actually see Williams grave and also see the house that he had built for him -  he was clearly a wealthy man of some importance in the local area.
I also found a document relating to marriages at Whitburn Church and there are two listings for William Wilkinson - he married Sarah Wilson on 8th September 1760 but then there is a wedding listed between William Wilkinson and Isabella Robinson on 1st May 1782.  I wonder if this would explain children out of wedlock or perhaps two separated lines of children.
I am very new to all of this and sadly as my grandfather died when my father and his siblings were quite young I have very limited knowledge of his family history
Any help will be great
Thanks in anticipation.

[jwilko]

Sybil Reader wrote a book on Whitburn, there is a section in there on William Wilkinson and the house. It's called Olde House now, A wealthy businessman built a house on the bank opposite and took the name of Whitburn House.

As for any further assistance with the tree, I haven't got a clue. Took a look, realised that there were endless possibilities and no census and gave up.

If you find anything of interest I would like to know myself. 

[stanmapstone]

Hi thanks for your reply My Grandfather was Menter (note the spelling of the name with an 'e' rather than an 'o'.  he was born "around 1900" according to the record I have seen - I have him in a census aged 11 living at Ann Street which I believe is or was in Hendon Sunderland.

You can see Ann Street on this 1919 map at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/440291/556602/12/101064 You may have to change the zoom level with the - in the top left corner. If you zoom right out you will get the modern street map.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

The birth of Menter Wilkinson was registered in Sunderland September Qtr 1899 and his mother's maiden name is given as Stolker, probably a mistake for Stoker. I can see no marriage registered to a Menter Wilkinson and a Sarah Stoker.

Stan

[sillgen]

Try looking at the 1939 register for Menter and Jenny.  It is on findmypast.
Freebmd.org.uk shows the name "Mentor" Wilkinson going back many years.