Welcome to my new Blog pages ... where I invite you discuss and share your Billingham Family Tree stories and experiences, ask questions and hopefully seek and discover answers. I have been worked on my own family tree since 1987, and started my One Name Study in 1999. I now have an extensive database of birth, death and marriage records, many cross referenced with parents and spouse information. I also have thousands of parish records and wills, as well as census information for England and Wales from 1841 - 1911. In addition, I have many military records, mostly army, and immigration records from the UK.
SURNAME DISTRIBUTION In 1851, approximately 50% of persons with the surname Billingham originate from the West Midlands, particularly the Black Country areas of Dudley, Stourbridge, Wolverhampton and Walsall, while approximately 25% originate from the towns and villages to the west of Northampton, eg Daventry, Towcester, Kislingbury, Floore, Bugbrooke, etc. Smaller groups could be found in the industrial areas of Lancashire, eg Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Wigan (8%), Yorkshire eg North Yorkshire moors around Pickering, and Scarborough (8%) and London, eg Shoreditch and Bethnal Green (7%) .
My own Billingham originated from the Cradley Heath area of the Black Country, but left that area 1864/5 and moved north to Gainsborough, then onto Salford by 1871. They were from a long line of chainmakers, a common occupation among Billingham's in the 19th century in the Cradley Heath area.
If you would like any help or assistance in any aspect of your Billingham family tree, just drop me a line, and I'll do my best to help you out. Equally, if you can add any aspect to this Billingham collection, be it copies of photographs, birth, death or marriage certificates, information regarding immigration, information from wills, parish records etc would be most welcome, world wide!
