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My grandfather, John G. Wren, comes from stolid Cornishmen in and around Falmouth in Cornwall, UK. The original family name was Uren, pronounced “Yorn” or “U-Ren”, a fairly common name in Cornwall. My great grandfather changed it to Wren, presumably because people mispronounced it in the obvious way. My grandmother, Blanche Banfield, was born on the Scilly Isles, and was related to many of the island families on St Marys. I have lots of data on the Banfields and their Scillonian relations, and recently I have gotten in touch with my cousin Roger Banfield, who has a really wonderful Banfield database. I have now incorporated much of Roger’s data into my database. Also, please have a look at the Scilly Museum Web site that Roger has helped create for the Isles of Scilly Museum. Strangely enough, even though my grandfather recorded lots of the family data regarding the Banfields, he left me almost no data about his own family, the Urens. Starting from his father, whom I found in the 1891 UK census, I had been able to trace back a few generations, but I had reached the limit of what I could do on-line. Recently I heard from Roger Langley, a Uren cousin in the UK, and he was able to help me expand and greatly improve my Uren data. The most illustrious of my Uren ancestors is J. G. Uren, author of a relatively well-known source on the Scilly Islands, Scilly and the Scillonians, a quirky but rewarding book, and verrryy Victorian... Here’s a picture of J. G. and his family, sometime after 1900. My great grandfather George Gilbert is standing second from the left.
My next goal is to establish my Highland Scots heritage. My great grandmother, Ellen (Farquharson) Banfield apparently had Scottish background, but I can’t document the actual link back to Scotland. Just because I like the pictures, here are myself and my lovely wife Linda on a recent Burns night.
The following links will display the data. They fit together as follows: my grandmother was Blanche Banfield, and my grandfather was John G. Wren. John G. Wren’s grandmother was Carolyn Barwis. The Barwis connection was unknown to me until I found the marriage record of Joseph Uren to Carolyn Gloyns Barwis, but I have since substantiated the link from other sources. The pages are Adobe pdf files with no buttons, so use your browser’s Back button to return. |
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