Brothers meet during wartime

Its amazing how things just crop up when you are researching family history, during a chat about something totally different it was mentioned that my granddad, James, had managed to meet up in India with his brother, Herbert, during the war whilst both in different forces and low and behold a random search a few days later found the front page of the local paper from May 20 1944 which made mention of the very event!

James and Herbert Wankling meet in India after not seeing each other for 2 years

So from a story I had never heard to finding proof in print within 3 days, if only everything in family history was this easy to prove.

A few figures - A Census sumamry

Just to see how the numbers in my family name has grown in the last couple of hundred years i did a summary of the census data held by findmypast.co.uk and a couple of the main variations and misspellings of the name

Surname	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911
WANKLIN	109	129	132	156	118	153	137	143
WANKLING	34	41	46	69	75	91	103	114
WANKLYN	34	51	56	63	90	93	142	174
TOTAL	177	221	234	288	283	337	382	431
MOVEMENT		+44	+13	+54	-5	+54	+45	+49

Interestingly the numbers havent changed much since 1911, infact a look at a report done by the Office of National Statistics (link) show that the number is approximately 428 for the same 3 surnames allthough the mix has changed quite a lot with about 70 Wanklin's becoming Wanklyn's.

Surname	Count
WANKLIN	77
WANKLING	101
WANKLYN	250
TOTAL	428

Whats in a name?

To say the least by modern standards the name Wankling is rather strange, when I was growing up I always thought that the name came from Germany or some other foreign land and would sound nothing like the way we where pronouncing it. What it meant I had no idea, a quick search on the internet recently gave me this

Surname:Wankling
Recorded as Wank, Wanck, Wancke, the diminutive Wankel, the occupational Wankmuller (Germany), and in England as Wanklin, Wankling, and Wanklyn, all diminutives, this is a surname of pre 7th century Anglo-Saxon and early German origins. It has two possible meanings in its base forms, although as a compound such as Wankmuller, meaing a miller by a path, the options are greatly increased. The base form translations are either topographical and describe person who lived by a path or bye road (wank), or the same word used in a transferred sense as a medieval nickname for a person regarded by his friends or peer group, as having a fickel personality! In most countries in Europe, surnames from nicknames form one of the largest groups in the surname listings. Those surnames considered overly robust or obscene, of which there were many, have now disappeared, or have been replaced by gentrified versions. In this case early examples of the surname recordings in both countries include Haintz Wankmuller of Hindelang, Germany in 1451, Hans Wank in the charters of Kempten also Germany, in 1454, Dorothie Wanklyn who married Robert Davies at the church of St Benet Fink, in the city of London on May 16th 1585, and Ambrose Wanklin christened at St Pauls, Covent Garden, on August 27th 1713.

So the question is did my ancestors have a fickle personality or live by a path! Of course I assume there are many such websites trying to tell the history of a name with a differing amount of credibility for example the next link i clicked on gave me a slightly different, but who is to say less correct, view.

The surname of WANKLING was an ancient personal name 'the son of Walkelin'. The name was originally written Gwanklin and was brought to England in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066. Early records of the name mention Walchelin, 1273, County Yorkshire. Isabella Walkelyn of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Mrs Wakling, mother of the landlord of the Hop Pole, Swanley Junction, Kent died on January 13th 1887, aged 103 years. The name has many variant spellings which include Wanklyn, Wakeling and Wakelin.

The book - The General Armoury of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales by Bernard Burke (published 1864) gives support to the above information, although it is probably the original source, regarding Gwanklin but also provides a little insight into the counties where the name and heraldry came from, and also provides a little on the heraldic imagery

Wanklyn (cos Hereford and Worcester This name was originally written Gwanklin as appears from an ancient Latin MS in the library at Avranches) Per pale gu and sa a lion ramp in sinister supporting a tree eradicated in dexter or Crest - A lion's head erased ppr

Which if I am translating correctly mean’s – A vertically split (pale) with the left half (sinister) of the shield red(gules) showing with a lion rampant (lion ramp) and the right half (dexter) is a tree with no leaves (tree eradicated) on a black (sable) background – but that is just a brief look at a few heraldry websites. I have little understanding of heraldry but i believe the coat of arms are given to a specific family and not a name how it passes on through generations i have no idea!

The Wankling Name in History

I have always looked for information about my surname and when i saw this

it was a must have, of course i knew it would be just a cookie cutter book with odd bits of information thrown in but with a name as rare as mine it would probably be usefull for me.

The book is quite a good read with bits about the general history of the UK at the time, the facts about the family name are pretty much pulled from Ancestry.co.uk (including the fact that the Wankling family disapear from Nottingham in 1861 due to census transcription errors!) but its good to see my name in print as one of the only Wanklings married between 1986 and 2005. Overall i think if you have a rare name and are just getting in to geneaology or you are looking for a neat gift for someone then looking on amazon for the Name in History series of books is a good idea.

Names in my family tree and research

Was quite suprised to see over 150 surnames in my family tree research, over 1000 people included but mainly Wanklings, but if you want to look up any name in my family tree the website will be coming soon :-)

A
Allsopp, Annis, Ashfield, Astence, Astill
B
Berridge, Birch, Bird, Boaker, Booth, Bourne, Bradley, Brailsford, Bromhead, Brown, Bull, Bullock, Burlton, Bush, Butterworth
C
Canham, Carnall, Carodron, Castledine, Cawthorne, Chambers, Cole, Collins, Cooper, Cottrell, Crowder, Curtleton
D
Davies, Davis, Dawkes, Dodd, Downes, Dransfield, Dring, Dun
E
Eaton, Eddington, Eines, Eldershaw, English, Evans
F
Fidoe, Flatters, Fletcher
G
Gardner, Gibson, Glanfield, Glover, Goldingay, Gough, Gould, Green, Gregory
H
Haines, Hall, Harding, Harrison, Hedeshaw, Henton, Hewitt, Hickinbottom, Hickling, Hillman, Hind, Hodnett, Holford, Hollis, Hopkins, Hopwood, Houghton, Howarth, Howes, Hughes
I
Ingles, Ivons
J
Jamieson, Jardin, Jones
K
Kemp, Kimberlain, Kitchin, Knight
L
Lane, Lawley, Lewis, Linton, Lloyd, Lowe
M
Mander, Marriott, Marshall, Matthews, May, Miles, Millman, Mills, Milward, Moore, Neate
N
Nixon, Norman
O
Osemon, Oswin
P
Pallett, Palser, Parker, Patterson, Pearson, Peel, Peet, Pettener, Pierce, Pilsworth, Pinfield, Poole, Pottinger, Purvis
R
Reeves, Rist, Roberts, Roc, Roper, Rowbotham, Ruth
S
Sanpe, Savage, Seandrett, Sevage, Shaw, Short, Simpson, Smith, Snape, Spec, Spendlove, Storey, Stubbs
T
Tilly, Towle, Turner, Twigg, Tyler
U
Uncher
V
Vines
W
Wade, Waldron, Walker,Wanklen, Wanklin, Wankling, Wanklyn, Wanklin, Ward, Warren, Wells, Went, Whitehouse, Wiggins, Wilcock, Wilkinson, Willey, Wilson, Wolten, Wombell
Y
Young

Emigration - continued

After finding Alfreds birth yesterday and thinking a little more about it i returned to familysearch.org this morning and did a search for Wanklings born in the USA and both Alfred and Harold came up with links to the 1901 census of the UK and from the information on the census it becomes clear that not only are they not twins but they are from different families.  Always a good idea to check some facts!

From the census record (RG13/2913/147/40) it appears Alfred, born Peabody, Mass., is the middle child of 3 (the other two born in Coventry, England) and son of George J and Ellen, whilst Harold, born Boston, Mass., is the 2nd of 4 children of James and Clara (RG13/2911/61/14) - so now its a case of finding out how these two Wankling families are connected and why they came back from America?

Emigration

Whilst randomly collecting data for my one name study i came accross the Wankling name on ellisisland.org, in fact a whole family which is always good.  Harold, Constance and a son leaving Southampton for New York on the Aquitania in 1923.

A quick look for a Harold - Constance marriage didnt find anything i could definately link to them and neither did a birth of the son or Harold.

Looking at the 1930 US census on familysearch.org gave the family living in New Jersey but did note that Harold was born in Massachusetts in abt.1894 and his wife was born in Coventry (abt.1895) along with the first child, Two more children had since been born in New Jersey.

So i continued to look in the US for a Harold Wankling birth but all i can find at the moment is a Alfred Wankling born 6 May 1894 in Peabody, Massachusetts to  George J and Ellen (nee. Warren).

And yet again as is usual with randomly collecting data you get stuck rather quickly.  At some point i will come back to this and dig a little deeper, did Alfred become Harold? was he a twin? were there more Wanklings in Peabody Massachusetts at that time.

I have left out the names of anyone under 100 years old for safety but if you think you are a relative please get in touch, any help appreciated in my recording of the Wankling name.

EDIT - more research in Emigration - Continued