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Now in its 11th year, this website was developed to help share a family history with other family members. It has taken on various forms in recent years, one of which was also a vehicle for my home spun desktop themes based on British TV comedy shows. These became so popular that I have now set up a separate website at beebfun, please feel free to pop in and brighten up your desktop with some of the fun desktop themes.
Important bit: To find your way round this web site use the menu buttons in the left hand panel - if you get lost just press the HOME button to return to this page.
Background: My particular branch of this Howard tree are located in south-west Surrey - Haslemere, which is some 40 miles or so south-west of London, England. We have lived in the area for nearly 20 years, although for the most part completely oblivious of the fact that my Howard line had its roots in the ancient parish of Thames Ditton, which lies close to the market town of Kingston-upon-Thames, north-east Surrey.
Thames Ditton although still retaining much of its village charm has inevitably been engulfed by the creep of urbanisation radiating outwards from the city of London. Take a look at what Surrey used to look like in this Surrey Map dating from the 1750s. You can also take a peek at the present street map of Thames Ditton using the Multimap website - note the presence of a Howard Street to the north of Long Ditton recreation Ground.
This web-site is home of my family history, which I have called The Thames Ditton Howard's. I have been able to trace my family back to c. 1700 with some certainty and possibly as far back as c. 1600 to an area of north-east Surrey close to the present day village of Thames Ditton which lies on the south bank of the River Thames, about 10 miles upstream from the City of London.
When I started tracing myr family tree back in 1994 I could count the number of families I knew of on the fingers of one if not two hands. With the help of many friends and family (a big thank-you to my mother's cousin, Albert Richardson, who "got me started") I have been able to extend that number to around 300 families, not all now living of course, but nevertheless a significant improvement on the number I knew about when I started.
Initially, I attempted to write to all these families with news of the developments with our family research, but as the numbers of families grew, so did the task of keeping everyone updated. Not only did the numbers increase but branches started popping up in Australia which meant that I needed some different medium to share my research. You can also follow my progress with our family history research by reading the Thames Ditton Howards Newsletter. Alas, work commitments make it virtually impossible for me to to keep this website up to date but I intend to add relevant information from time to time and if your branch of the family has an important announcement or event you wish to share please let me know.
It is, therefore, my intention to maintain this web site as the home of the our HOWARD family history pages The Thames Ditton Howard's. To access my Howard Family Tree and history records sub-menu, click on Family History button.
In the past I have received the occasional request for help in tracing other peoples Howard families and where we can, we am delighted to help. Through the power of the Internet we have a powerful tool to put people in touch with other people of similar interest and it is with this aim that we have set up a Lost and Found Section for some of the names being researched here. Be sure to check out the Lost and Found pages - last updated 25 Nov 2000. This has been well used during the past year since we linked to FamilySearch.
Thanks for dropping in, remember to sign the Guestbook and maybe we will se you back here one day.