Willingale Genealogy

The Willingale Family Society

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We often get asked about the history of the Willingale name, yet it is something we have done little research on. One commercially produced history of the name is as follows The origin of this name is medieval German, the derivation being either Villinger, a name found recorded heraldically from the former province of Winter […]

We received Thomas’s DNA test results back yesterday. These we supposed to confirm if the Charles Willingale branch was distinct from the other Willingale branches; William our original tester from this branch has very different DNA to mine & Peter’s DNA. We therefore needed Thomas’s DNA to confirm if Williams DNA difference was the result […]

Sophie organises motor rallies to Tajikistan to support a charity. This year’s has just finished and been a great success – see http://roofoftheworld.charityrallies.org/ Here’s todays email: Hello everyone I think this will be my one and only update this year as internet access has been hard to come by.  I’m writing this whilst waiting for […]

Just a reminder that all membership to the Willingale Family Society expires on 31st July. If you have not recently joined or recently renewed your membership then your access to the members’ area of the website will shortly be removed. Please see the membership page for joining/renewal information.

We have received another offer of a photo for our archives. This one is from Richard Smith in Scotland, who has a photo of his mother Marie Louisa Willingale taken in 1946. Marie Louisa was adopted at birth by Arthur & Florence Bancroft and her name was changed to Olive Bancroft. Richard contacted the WFS […]

Today we received the final batch of postcards and photos from Stephen Cook; 23 postcards and one photo. These postcards give a snapshot of what life was like in the early part of the last century. These will be added to the member’s area over the coming days

We are pleased that another Willingale has agreed to join the DNA Surname Project. Owen Willingale, who is a descendant of Thomas the Lopper, is from the ‘John’ branch of the main Willingale family tree. Hopefully we should have his results back in a couple of months. We are expecting the DNA results of another […]

Following on from the Car Boot Sale find, Peter Willingale has helped to identify some of the individuals in these photos, those that we can’t identify are still listed in the Most Wanted section of the members area. Peter has also kindly contributed a number of additional photos of Lizzies family, all are now listed […]

We have recently been contacted by Stephen Cook, a local historian and family history researcher who purchased an old album for the postcards it contained, to sell on eBay, but he had no interest in the old photographs which were also in the album. The postcards were mostly addressed to a Lizze Willingale, not wishing […]

Surfing the web a while ago I came across an article from the local press on the formation of the society.