Thomas Hopkins burial record (General)

by jhopkins , Thursday, January 14, 2010, 09:15 (5511 days ago) @ unknown

Hi Alan

Thanks for your reply. You may well be correct, although I have not yet come across that particular collection of sibling names.

As far as I have been able to work out, there have been Hopkin/Hopkins in and around Hewelsfield for several centuries. There is a resource on this site at http://www.forest-of-dean.net/downloads/index.php?path=Stories_Articles/ called Life_in_Hewelsfield_and_Brockweir_16th_Century.pdf that has Hopkins in that village in the 16th Century. And some of the wills show the Hopkin/Hopkins name in the Forest around the middle of that century.

I cannot prove conclusively where our lot come from exactly, but I have been able to prove that my great great great grandfather Phillip Hopkin was born in Llandogo Monmouth on the other side of the River Wye from the Forest, in 1772. It seems there is a bit of a plague of Hopkins around Llandogo.

My direct lot seems to have lived there, Hewelsfield, Brockweir, Aylburton, and Bream.

Unfortunately there is a particular rash of Thomas Hopkin/Hopkins as well - a very popular name, down to me (my first name is Thomas but I am called by my second name). My great grandfather seems to be one of the few in my direct lineage to have avoided the name!

There are lots of other Thomases to chose from, back into the 18th Century, but I am not yet far enough back to locate the generation you descend from - I have only got back to my great great great grandfather Phillip who was born in 1772. I think I may also know who his parents were - William Hopkins (b. unknown) and Frances Williams (b 1731) of Llandogo, but that is as far as I have got thus far.

Where do you live? I am in North Canterbury (Woodend).

Kind regards, John