My Family Tree

Am I related to Nelson?A strange question to ask but a story my Grand father Walter Matthews once told me has always had me interested and eager to find out more, was it a rumour that appeared to have little substance or was it something lost in the depths of Matthews family history?

As with all good family stories they are not always as they first appear. My grandad Walter Mattews always had a story to tell and as a small child I believed everything he said however tall!

One such story was that we were related to Nelson, to be fair Walter never said it was the Nelson of Trafalgar fame but as with any small boy my imagination ran wild for years before I finally found the truth. We are related to Nelson not Horatio but Dennis!

The thing is now that I have found out a little about Dennis I am just as proud of his part in British history and using this web site I will share his story together with those of my other ancestors.

Geneology Why are we interested in family history? For me it was the as much to do with the social history of the area of my birth. I was born in Peel Street, Nottingham in 1964 and even though I have since moved across the border into Derbyshire. I have remained intensely proud of my City and its people.

Nottingham is a city that has changed beyond all recognition over the past 200 years. Even over the last few decades the trades for which the City was once famous have disappeared as new technologies and cheaper labour markets compete for the workforce. I know this from first hand experience having been an apprentice and Millwright at the Royal Ordnance Factory which once stood in the Meadows area.

Moving to Derbyshire seemed to be taking me away from my ancestral roots but as I found out later during my research I was not the first member of the Matthews family to settle in the area.

Were my ancestors from Nottingham? If not why did they move here? What part did they play in making it the place it was and is today and have they left any lasting legacy?

Favourite Quotes: William Shakespeare, 1599

“But we in it shall be remembered- We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother”