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Welcome! This website was created on 25 Jun 2007 and last updated on 18 Mar 2024. The family trees on this site contain 1335 relatives and 991 photos. If you have any questions or comments you may send a message to the Administrator of this site.
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About gregorylong
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My family tree covers the Long and Gregory families and their ancestors.  Apart  from finding my direct ancestors, I have also tried, where possible, to add  siblings and spouses, as well as job descriptions and anything else that is  known about them.  This has helped me to create a rounded, historical picture,  not only of my ancestors but of the times in which they were living.

My family's pattern seems to conform fairly well with the move from an agrarian  society to an industrial one in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth  century, with many of them altering their lives to accommodate this.  For  example, my great grandfather, Samuel Long, moved his business from Wiltshire to  London where he thought he would be more successful selling chaff for horses'  feed in a city containing thousands of horses, rather than in a rural area, and  the Shelleys, who had been farriers in the City of London, who added coach  building to their skills.

Although I have found out a good deal about the various branches of my family  and I feel that I have got to know them, there are still a lot of unanswered  questions.  For example, my great grandfather, Richard Phillips, was a nurse  child and, so far, I have found no record of his father, although I do now know who  his mother was.  The story goes that Richard was the product of a liaison between the  master of the house and his domestic servant (where have we heard these sorts of  stories before?); whose side did we take during the English Civil War?; what did those  brave young men feel when they joined up and marched off to war in 1914-18?; were  there any villains or heroes? I could go on.

I was fortunate enough to have known all my grandparents and therefore have a  direct link to the Victorian age because I used to listen with great interest to  their stories of a bygone era, as they must have done with their grandparents,  and thus history is passed on through the generations.

Before I started my research, I didn't know that I had any living relatives from  the Phillips' side of the family tree but I have been fortunate enough to find  my second cousins.  I have now met up with my lovely cousin, Hayley Green, so we  are able to help each other on a side of the tree that, in some ways, is quite  mysterious.  On first meeting, it felt as though I had known her all my life;   blood is indeed thicker than water.  Hayley managed to get lots of photographs  that her aunt Doll (my mum's cousin) had collected, which we have checked and,  between us, we have sorted out who is who.  It is so good to have someone else  to talk to and I don't feel nearly so alone now with the Phillips family. Hayley  has also taken me on a journey of discovery around Dartford, to see many of the  places connected with the Phillips' family and we have found the site of Richard  Phillips' and Alice Mary Apted's grave although, sadly, no headstone.

I have visited the Medway area of Kent, from where some of my maternal  ancestors came and in Frindsbury Church was fortunate to find a headstone  for my gx4 grandparents James & Prudence Moorey.  That was such an exciting find and  it was amazing to think that, after 200 years, the headstone was still standing and  still readable.  On the Gregory side, I have a third cousin, Paul Savill, who is also researching,  so we are pooling our resources and coming up with some interesting information, especially after  our visit to the Medway Records' Office in Strood.  It was the first time that I had met Paul,  although we had corresponded regularly, so it was very exciting.

I also managed to contact my mum's cousin Lillian Wyatt, the daughter of Eliza Gregory, my  grandfather's younger sister.  She lived in Crayford for the whole of her life and gave me lots of  information about the Gregory family that I didn't know.  She also had masses of photographs, many  of which she allowed me to copy, thus giving me the opportunity to see pictures of ancestors that I  hadn't seen before.  Sadly, Lillian died in December 2009; I was invited to attend the interring of  her ashes in St Paulinus Churchyard in Crayford, where I was also able to see the Gregory family  burial plots that were there.  I was recently put in touch with my cousin Alan (Uncle Norman's son)  who lives in Calgary in Canada and we have joined forces to look at the Canadian connections within  the Gregory family and to research Norman's war record.

As for the Shelley family, I was fortunate enough to have contact with my second  cousin, Pauline, whose mother and aunt were dad's cousins, with whom he  lost touch during WWII.  Sadly Pauline's mother Edna has died but we have  visited Gladys Shelley; it was the first time dad has seen her since about 1940.   They lost touch during the war because dad went off into the forces and Gladys  and her family were bombed out of their homes three times.  It was a great  reunion and Gladys let me have some photographs, including a locket containing  one of her mother as a young woman. It is beautiful.  Pauline lives in Canada. Sadly Gladys died in  November of 2013 but it did mean that Pauline and I met up at the funeral and had an interesting day  together.  We talk a lot on skype now.

I have also found my cousins, June, John, Martin & Janet Long, which is so  exciting and we are busy making up for lost time and pooling our resources on the  family tree front.  We were fortunate that John and Janet were able to come along to join in  dad's 92nd birthday celebrations, which was of great excitement to him.  We had a family reunion on  10 October 2009 at The Telegraph Pub in Putney.  It was a great afternoon, getting to know each  other after all these years and meeting the new members of the family.

I have some other exciting recent discoveries.  The Attree line, on my mum's  side, originated in the villages of Wivelsfield and Ditchling, where the name  started as At Ree and the origins of the family can be traced back to the  Doomsday book (1086).  Some of the Attrees migrated to the Dorking area and  William Attree was born in Redhill.  He married a Sarah Alston, the daughter of  Sir Evelyn Alston, of the Baronetcy of Chelsea.

Sir Evelyn's mother was Penelope Evelyn, whose great-great grandfather George  was patriarch of the family and a manufacturer of gunpowder.  One of his  grandsons was John Evelyn, famous for his diary, which contains many references  to family members and which has proved of great help to me in compiling my tree.   When I studied JE's diary at university, little did I know that I was studying  some of my own ancestors - bizarre!

In April 2010 I visited Tilshead, which is a village in the centre of Salisbury Plain, and where my  great grandfather, Samuel Long, was born.  It is such a pretty village.  We visited the  church and found some headstones dedicated to members of the Long family in the churchyard.  We  also found Sunny Side Cottage, which is where one of my grandfather's cousins lived.  I have put a  photograph of it on the website.

I do hope you enjoy my website.
 Valerie

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Getting Around
There are several ways to browse the family tree. The Tree View graphically shows the relationship of selected person to their kin. The Family View shows the person you have selected in the center, with his/her photo on the left and notes on the right. Above are the father and mother and below are the children. The Ancestor Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph above and children below. On the right are the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The Descendant Chart shows the person you have selected in the left, with the photograph and parents below. On the right are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Do you know who your second cousins are? Try the Kinship Relationships Tool. Your site can generate various Reports for each name in your family tree. You can select a name from the list on the top-right menu bar.

In addition to the charts and reports you have Photo Albums, the Events list and the Relationships tool. Family photographs are organized in the Photo Index. Each Album's photographs are accompanied by a caption. To enlarge a photograph just click on it. Keep up with the family birthdays and anniversaries in the Events list. Birthdays and Anniversaries of living persons are listed by month. Want to know how you are related to anybody ? Check out the Relationships tool.

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