Family Ancestry & Military History

When you start to look at your ancestors, you may find some surprises!

I expected my paternal line to spring from one of the villages in the North of Yorkshire. My grandfather was an agricultural labourer and my grandparents travelled from village to village for years. The origins of my paternal line in fact lies further south, in the villages of Dunnington and Wheldrake, near York. My grandparents married and spent the early years of their marriage in Wheldrake and I consider Wheldrake to be the ancestral home of this part of my family.

So sprang my interest in the Wheldrake Memorial. I wanted to find out about the men who were born and / or lived in Wheldrake prior to the outbreak of World War One, especially as four of them are my great uncles, all born in Wheldrake.

Wheldrake is a tight knit community and a number of the men of Wheldrake were related to each other:
· Leonard and William Crossley are twin brothers who were born and died on the same day
· Neville Wilfred and Thomas Christopher Beilby are cousins, their fathers are brothers
· John and Walter Biscombe are brothers – Walter Bolton could be a cousin