WRT16 Complete Table of Contents

Table of Contents

The following links review the family history of the Whittington, Sullivan and Smith branches of our family tree. Characters found in the pages below appeared in the annals of history on our recent travels in Great Britain. There are two story lines found within this collection: 1) the history of our ancestors and the 2) incredible story of survival taken on by our party of five traveling in the remotest of regions: Wensleydale and Beyond. Cheese! Gromit.

The Whittington and Sullivan families are rooted deep among the noble class of Great Britain. Prior to 1600 both lines contain only aristocrats, people with titles of nobility, great wealth and considerable power. There is not a commoner among them. Historians have traced our family history 700 years prior to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. It is not unusual or miraculous that we can so readily find these ancestors. The kings kept complete records on an annual basis. Revenue and military power depended on the census and tax rolls (titheables). Such records began with the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror and continued through the Millenia.

With the Norman invasion and conquest we find an increasing number of grandparents whose names are readily apparent in the annals of history. So many names that I finally told Grandma that if she sees a castle she can rest assured one of her great grandparents slept there at some point in the past one thousand years.

Shropshire Natives in our Tree

Preface to the Whittington Tour

A Brief History of What Little I Pretend to Know of Great Britain

Introduction to Family History 101

Noble Families in the Whittington Family Tree

Recent Generations of Whittington’s in the New World

Whittington Castle: Places and Faces From the Past

Whittington Links to the Monarchs

Whittington Castle and Fulk fitz Warin

Finding the Earliest Ancestors in the Isles

The Early British Kingdoms Prior to the Norman Conquest

The Ancient Line of Whittingtons