INTRODUCTION

I have constructed this record of my family history in web page format making use of hyperlinks between the individual sections.
I am still in the process of doing this and I don't expect to ever finish it completely, as there is probably no complete form possible anyway.
This is not a problem as I enjoy the task of adding stuff as I find it or it becomes available.
The HTML format of a web page is just ideal for this as I can add bits easily to the hyperlinked sections and switch easily between them.
I have also provided as many hyperlinks as I can between and within sections to enable the reader to navigate easily around all the documents.
Being able to scan pictures and documents is a huge advantage and enables me to include much source material easily
I hope all this will also make it more interesting to you, the reader.
You may now wish to go back to my index page to browse the sections before perhaps returning here to find how I went about producing the record..
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PREFACE
The idea of producing this record came to me when I was using the Internet to trace my family ancestry. My sister, Muriel, had collected old photographs and records of the family which interested me and I knew from her, and my parents, that our forebears had lived in the Sharnbrook area of Bedfordshire.
I searched for Barcocks in the Bedfordshire telephone directory on the Internet and wrote to the ones I found saying I would be interested to know if they were related or had any knowledge of my relatives who lived there.
I did get some interesting replies including one from C. R. Barcock, Vice Master at Bedford Modern School, a Public School, which you can see on my Family Documents page under the heading "Section F Letters".
But the one that provided the most information was from Ted Barcock of Biddenham, Bedford. His daughter, Julia, had commissioned research into the family history to be carried out by Norman Ratcliffe who must have been a friend of the family. I was able to find the link in his "Barcock Family History" to my family line.

I then checked his line back to Johannis Barcock, married 23.10.1592, using the LDS IGI. That is the Church of the Latter Day Saints, International Genealogical Index which can be found at http://www.familysearch.org/
The link was through Thomas Barcock born, 1806 who was the father of John Barcock, born 1843 who was my Great Grandfather. I was able to correctly trace the line forward and backwards from there using different sources. This was the beginning of the research which has occupied me since then, using the Internet and the telephone and occasionally the Royal Mail, I have amassed a wealth of information which I am collating and recording and adding to continually. The best analogy of the task I can think of is that it is like doing a jigsaw without any boundaries. No straight edges here! I can go off in any direction that grabs my interest at the time and always find another piece to fit in.

The IGI has provided the basis for investigating the individuals further using the County Records Offices of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to obtain Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates and also Parish Registers for earlier records. For all these I have been able to use email, telephone and the post without leaving home, except to post a letter! I have incuded some of these certificates on my Family Documents page which also includes other documents of interest connected to the family history and the page will continue to grow as I add more. The Web Page format is just ideal for copies these to be included. Old documents such as Wills and letters hold great fascination for me.
My only ventures out have been to Eaton Socon where it turns out all the early forebears lived and my 6x Great Grandfather John Barcock's cottage can still be seen. I have put a picture of this, with notes, on my Family History page of this record. Eaton Socon warranted a special section so I am building this up on my Eaton Socon Connection page.

Another valuable source of information has been from the American cousins in Maine, New England. My Grandfather's sister Alice Barcock married Will Lane and they emigrated to Boston, USA, in 1897. This branch also merited a special section which is found on my American Cousins page. We visited Fredda and Pete in Freeport Maine for several years running up to 2001 when Fredda unfortunately passed away, having suffered from a rare form of cancer for several years. We had found the journey too difficult anyway by then but we have maintained contact with Pete and the children Brittany and Dane who are very grown up now. They were very happy holidays we had and Fredda had a huge amount of memorabilia that Alice had taken with her when they emigrated and had been kept by her daughter Bea, Fredda's mother. I researched Alice and Will's lives and this and a lot of the information about them all can be found on the American Cousins page.

The extent of the family tree soon becomes prodigious, so I have had divide it into sections to include it here on my Family Tree page. It is so large it will take me some time to include all the sections. I have it largely complete, as far as that is possible, on a computer programme called "Family Tree Maker", and I will keep updated copies of that on disc as the source. The visual impact of a tree diagram is unquestioned, but it is very difficult to display. This illustrates the size of the extended family which I am attempting to cover in my Extended Family page. I have made a start on this and it will be my main occupation in future I expect.

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