Introduction
My name is Melvyn Duckmanton and I was born in 1954 in the village of Warsop in Nottinghamshire, England. There I lived, on and off, for about 37 years before my job had me moving to Grimsby in N.E. Lincolnshire in 1991 where I still live today.
Duckmantons - rarer than the white rhino
Idling away one evening in 1999 searching through phone books and 'white pages' on the internet I could only find about 170 Duckmanton households listed in the UK, thirty-odd in Australia, thirty-odd in New Zealand, and less than 20 in the US of A. That's about 250 Duckmanton households and therefore possibly only about 1000 Duckmanton individuals worldwide. According to the International Rhino Foundation there are over 11,500 white rhinos! That's almost an infestation by comparision. We're an endangered species. So maybe we Duckmantons should make an effort to get to know each other and learn about our roots. This Duckmanton Web Site is my contribution. And here is how the site came to be and what it is about . . .
In the Beginning
In 1992, out of the blue, I received an unsolicited letter from a 'cousin', Terrence William Duckmanton, on the other side of the world in Australia. He was investigating his family tree and wanted information about other branches of the Duckmanton family here in the UK. His letter inspired me to begin researching my own Duckmanton ancestry in my spare time.
The Archive
Terry already had a substantial archive of Duckmanton related information which he copied for me to help me get started. Over the next few years we expanded the archive together as new material was added.
The End?
In 1995, having traced my 4 x great grandfather and identified most of his Duckmanton descendants and their spouses, over 750 people, my enthusiasm for the hobby waned and all the invaluable information that I had avidly collected over the years was carefully packed away in boxes and simply put in the attic to gather dust.
The Resurrection
So I ended up with a lot of potentially useful information about Duckmantons that I wasn't using and no one else had access to. But in 1999 I was able to indulge a new hobby, namely web authoring, and use it to make much of that family history information available through this site to anyone with access to the internet. And that's what this web site is all about.
If You're Curious
So, whether you are heavily into Duckmanton family history or if your are just curious to see if you or your great granddad Duckmanton gets a mention, or just plain curious, please feel free to browse the information in the Duckmanton family history archive.
ContactAnd if you want to ask any questions or offer any suggestions, feel free - just drop me an e-mail. Or at least leave a note in the guest book just so I can see who's visiting.
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