Anne Astling
My maiden name was TUPLING and my earliest proven forbear is THOMAS TUPLING who with his wife Frances had among his large family six surviving sons baptised at Keelby, Lincolnshire (about eight miles south west of Grimsby) in the first quarter of the 18th century.
My descent is from the second son JOHN (baptised 1719), who was a farrier in the village and brought up his family there. His son JONATHAN moved over the river Humber to the East Riding of Yorkshire, and the family remained there, until my grandfather moved back into Lincolnshire circa 1913.
I started to research my family history in the mid 1970s. Although like many beginners I really wanted to trace back my own particular line, I had difficulty finding where my great, great, great grandfather Jonathan was baptised: my early searches in Bishop’s transcripts did not find him.
I had already identified that there seemed to be two major family groups in Great Coates and Keelby in the 18th century, so I focussed on these families which meant that I “collected” a lot of names before eventually I was able to place my 4 x great grandfather within the Keelby group. In the process I was able to “build” the family groups of the six brothers mentioned above.
Without really realising it I had begun a one-name study!
Initially I was working very much on my own, but gradually I made contact with other researchers both in the UK and overseas, who have been invaluable in progressing my work - and in correcting some of my errors. An example of a particularly adventurous family group is the story of the youngest of Thomas and Frances’ sons, William, whose two elder sons moved to Devon in the 1770s. Children of one of these brothers in turn had children who ventured to the New World and settled there. Possibly the first members of the Tuplin/gs to have been successful in establishing themselves abroad - though there were many more to follow, travelling to all corners of the globe.
