THE HISTORIES in these pages all relate to one line of the Adkins family who lived and worked in the Midlands of England, first as farmers then, at the dawn of the industrial revolution, as emerging manufacturers in what is today the City of Birmingham.
This is a fascinating story taking the family from farmers around Stratford-upon-Avon and the rural living associated with that activity for centuries; farms being handed down from father to son through countless generations.
Then, quite by chance, a son is given an opportunity to take an apprenticeship in the then quite small town of Birmingham. From this grows a business which by the second generation becomes a major industrial enterprise as the industrial revolution takes off. Interestingly, Thomas Adkins 'the soap maker' (there are so many Thomas's that we need to qualify the names!) while developing this industry also maintained a farm just as his forebears had done. Later generations failed to build on these successes but their histories are none the less interesting.
The histories were researched and written by my late aunt Evelyn Goodman nee Adkins (1925-2007). While she had a number of lucky breaks over the years there can be no denying the tremendous effort and energy that she has put into this work - she declined to say how many decades it took her to identify and research countless sources of information throughout the West Midlands to the point where her tree contained over 900 individuals!
She continued to maintain her interest and was an encyclopedic source of knowledge on the family right to the end of her life. She passed all her notes, documents and pictures to me for safekeeping, to be passed down the family. Hopefully every generation will provide someone with the interest and enthusiasm for family history to ensure the safekeeping of such a valuable resource and, indeed, to add the generations that follow us to the collection and to the family tree.
Process
I am taking all of the material and gradually getting it into digital form. This first effort includes just the text from Evelyn Goodman's privately published book which also includes facsimiles of countless documents. Ultimately I will find a way of displaying the documents through the internet as well. The important thing for the time being is that I am preserving everything in digital format in order to prevent any loss through natural deterioration.
I also have additional material coming from the current elder generation of Adkins, most of whom have now died and the rest are elderly. This will be added in due course.
Index
I list here each of the histories that follow. I also give a link into the tree for each individual. Use the browser's Back button to return from the tree to these pages.
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Thomas ADKINS and Anne MASON
b.1642 m.1690
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History
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Tree
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Thomas ADKINS and Hannah DURHAM
b.1693 m.1725
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History
Will
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Tree
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Thomas ADKINS and Sarah BIRD
b.1726 m.1746
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History
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Tree
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Thomas ADKINS and Elizabeth FIELD
(the Tallow Chandler)
b.1762 m.1788
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History
Will
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Tree
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Thomas ADKINS and Anne TARLETON
(the Soap Manufacturer)
b.1792 m.1817
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History
Will (his)
Will (hers)
Letters
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Tree
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Henry ADKINS and Julia Bartleet MALINS
b.1822 m.1848
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History
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Tree
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Thomas ADKINS and Ellen SOTHAM
b.1850 m.1875
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History
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Tree
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Henry Francis ADKINS and Elizabeth Mary Barbara RATCLIFF
b.1878 m.1907
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History
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Tree
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Dennis ADKINS and Sheila McMorland
b.1909 d.2005
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History
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Tree
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'China Tom' ADKINS
b.1836 d.1912
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History
Obituary
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Tree
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All of those above are in direct line of descent. There are others in the family or who have married into the family who are also of interest and these follow.
This project is a big task and, after making allowance for all the other interests that I am involved in, it will inevitably take a long to time to complete!
Page under continuing development!!
