Topics

• About the Watkiss One-Name Study
• Variants
• Origin of the surname
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• DNA project
• Links
• Contact Details

About the Watkiss One-Name Study

I started collecting material of my mother's surname nearly twenty years ago and registered it as a One Name Study in 1989. I have made many contacts worldwide and although I have been told it is Watkins I have traced my own line back to Broseley, Shropshire in the 1600's where Thomas Watkis, Church Warden, was a Ground Collier (he picked up the coal from the fields and put it in his wheelbarrow).

When I started my Watkiss research with a marriage in Newcastle upon Tyne I was told - ALL Watkiss' come from Shropshire - it took me four years to find this to be true.

Variants

WATKIS

Origin of the surname

All Watkiss' comes from Shropshire I was told some twenty years ago by my first connection through the GRD at that time.

This has proved to be correct and they are established there in the 17th century.

Distribution of the name

Shropshire is the main county for Watkiss/Watkis which then spreads in the 1820's to Staffordshire & London.

Data

Birth references from the General Register Office 1837 - 2005

Marriage references from the General Register Office 1837 - 2005

Death references from the General Register Office 1837 - 2006

Parish Register entries in Shropshire, UK

Parish Register entries in London & Middlesex, UK

Burials Register in Shropshire and National Burial Index 3rd edition

Marriage Register in Shropshire

Census information for 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 & 1911

DNA project

A DNA project has now been established and I am looking forward to finding out more about the origins of this unusual surname.

Go to http://familytreedna.com/public/Watkiss

for more information

Links

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Watkiss

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mrs Sheila Jelley
E-mail:

This page last updated 13 January 2012.

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.