During the years I’ve been discovering the relatives in my family tree, I’ve found some very useful information and web sites.

When beginning the research into my family it made sense to break the family into 4 groups. My grandparents. This gave me four surnames Wilkins, Garland, Grant and Beacham. Talking to my parents gave me their locations. The area is mainly in and around Radstock and Frome, which is very rural and has little national importance, and therefore few records. I would like to thank all the people out there that have bothered to put information on the web. So here are some of the things I found. I hope they prove of use to someone.

The Wilkins family were coal miners in Radstock and nearby Writhlington.  Times were hard. Infant mortality high, literacy low and poverty the main enemy.  They married into other coal mining families Chivers, Perry and withers. There were people that escaped the misery of the coal mines. Luther and Theodore Wilkins emigrated to America in 1897.  They settled in Clay county Indiana and began a successful photography business in the township of Brasilia.  It looks as if Luther married and had two children James and Mary.   Unfortunately I loose them in the 1920’s, so if someone can help please leave a comment.  Poverty affected people in different ways, some struggled on, finishing life in the workhouse others took more desperate measures.

The garland family lived in the small hamlet of lamyatt near Evercreech in Somerset. They were agricultural workers or glove makers.  They were frequently in the workhouse in nearby Shepton Mallet.

The Grant family began in the early 1700’s in Chittern Wiltshire.  This family were wealthy Baptist farmers and the tree takes two very different branches, agricultural workers or military careers. Jacob Grant was in the 2^nd dragoon guards (discharged aged 35

Covering dates 1804-1821) and was a typical old soldier that lived with a woman having children with her but only marrying her months before he died. Another interesting character was sergeant major Maurice Grant who lived in Southampton and committed suicide 2 days after the Titanic went down.  It just goes to show the shock of this event.

The Beacham family were shoe makers, a relative told me that the name was originally Beauchamp and they were Huguenots expelled from France in the 1600’s.  They lived, certainly back to the late 1700’s, in the small village of Buckland Dinham in the hundred of Kilmerston, near Frome.  My great-grandfather was a baker and owed the post office in the village which my Nan took over when he became too old.