After more than eight years research and alot of help from lots of close and distant relatives, I have assembled a family tree comprising of over 1260 individuals most of whom I have never met or had even heard of. However, from compiling this tree I have found a real and genuine interest in History and Geography both subjects which I was absolutely hopeless at in School.
Most of my research has been generated around my Great Grandfather, Thomas Thompson (1830-1901) as it has been very easy to find out about him from the census information which is available on the internet.
Born in St. Johns Chapel, on the back of the pennines in the county of Durham, Thomas Thompson became a Wesleyan Methodist Minister and fathered nine children all of whom benefitted from a really good education and good jobs. I have become totally fascinated by his travels all over England considering that he and his family were travelling hundreds of miles before trains and cars had become common place. As a Methodist Minister he was on the move every three years or so making journeys which are considerable even today. Starting out from Weardale in his youth, he saw service in Bridport in Dorset, Atherstone in Leicestershire, Salisbury in Wiltshire, Glasonbury in Somerset, then up to Helmsley in Yorkshire before returning to Callington in Cornwall, Ewhurst in Sussex, Alton in Hampshire, Shepton Mallet in Somerset, Bridgend in South Wales before finally "superannuating" in Willesden, London.
During his three year postings he would then be travelling around the "Wesleyan Circuit" that was his parish. When he was stationed at Salisbury, Andover was part of the Circuit and that is where he met his wife to be, Jane. Thomas Thompson and Jane Fuller were married in 1865 in Up Clatford, Andover when he was aged 35 and she was 20 - the transport away from the church was probably a haywain...
Thomas Thompson died in Willesden in 1901 from a heart attack on sunday the 5th of May 1901. He was still working and died literally a street away from home after returning from taking an evening service some 5 miles away. His death was sudden and quick and he was buried a few days later in a churchyard called "God's Acre" in Neasden. Sadly, we have been unable to find his grave in this churchyard but, Jane, my Great grandmother who lived on for another 20 years, has a gravestone in the beautiful St Andrew's Church in Ashburton, Devon where she lived with her daughter Margaret.

There are lots of questions I wish I could ask my Ancestors............... I am now struggling to get back beyond my great, g, g, g, g, grandfather. I suspect it is going to mean finding and going through parish registers and waiting for the 1911 census to be released in a few years time.
Most of my research has been recorded using a program called Family Tree Maker 2005 which I found very easy to use. It links to Ancestry.com which I have found to be one of the most comprehensive and useful genealogy resources on the internet. www.google.co.uk has also played a large part in my research too. I have found quite alot of information from google, but at the same time have realised how few family trees there are to "Google" This website has been published using another program called "Family Historian" which although I didn't find as user-friendly as Family Tree Maker has got the ability to upload a customiseable website to any domain on the internet. As someone who makes a living from the internet, I consider it of prime importance to have a website in a place where it can be spidered by google and thus "googled" by people who are researching their family trees. My hope is that I will be able to build this tree even further with co-operation with other Thompson descendants. I have a wealth of information to put on this website, including pictures and personal histories - time is against me....

07/01/2010 Due to potential fraudulent use of personal details I have now taken off all but the most basic details of all people who are potentially still living.