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WELCOME TO THE FOURTH EDITION OF THE “WORLD WIDE W*GG*”

Editor - Vivian Egan

Well it has certainly been a hectic couple of months. Thanks largely to the generosity of Alan STANIER and Sheila JONES, we now have several W*GG* databases available on the Internet. Alan has also offered to send out copies of the WIGG GRO index on floppy disk in the UK. Alan’s postal address is: Dr. Alan STANIER, 24 Chaplin Drive, Colchester, Essex CO4 3EA, ENGLAND

On Alan’s webpage [URL - www.essex.ac.uk/AMS/Wigg/], along with the GRO index we also have most of the Australian States BMD records online, some Canadian BMDs, the W*GG* entries from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission & the US Social Security Death Index; and the WAGG entries from the Principal Probate Registry 1858 to 1958. Many thanks to Christine WAGG for the PPR WAGG extracts.

On Sheila Jones’ webpage [URL - web.ukonline.co.uk/sheila.jones/dbwigg.htm] you will find several Suffolk WIGG trees, the WIGG Principal Probate Registry entries 1858 to 1986 as a downloadable WINZIP file [610 entries], and some miscellaneous W*GG* details. Within the last few weeks we have been uploading Census extracts. [If you have any Census details in your family history files, please feel free to pass them along to me so they may be included]

So if you have access, take a look at both of these excellent sites along with those of Ian WEGG [www.wegg.mcmail.com] and Paul WAGG [www2.one.net.au/~pajwagg/]. For those of you who do not have Internet access I am happy to copy details to a floppy disk; and for those who do not use computers, I am quite prepared to do look-ups.

MY E-MAIL ADDRESS

Several of you have had difficulty with my new e-mail address. My sincere apologies. The “1” in ego@a1.com.au is the “number 1”

OUR CENTENARIAN “WIGG” DESCENDANT

Recently, I was delighted to receive from Marion Smith of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a photograph of her husband’s Aunt “Betty” taken on the occasion of her 101st birthday on 28 June 1998. Betty was born “Jane Elizabeth SMITH” the daughter of Fred SMITH and his wife Mary Ann nee WIGG [who was the great granddaughter of Abraham WIGG of Kent - see WWW 3 - Feature Family]

Marion wrote “Aunt Betty is a very smart lady and is able to take care of herself. She keeps busy knitting sweaters and afghans and is an avid baseball and hockey fan. She was a terrific baker in her day and loved tenpin bowling. She now resides in a retirement/nursing home. Aunt Betty has outlived three husbands [Mr. ROBBINS, Mr. HUTCHINSON and Mr. BARTON] and she lost her one and only child during her first marriage. She is the last of nine children, being the fourth eldest.”

RESEARCHERS’ LIST

To lessen the burden on the Newsletter Distributors, a list of all W*GG* researchers will only be sent out at the beginning of each year. In addition, if you are prepared to have your W*GG* research details and address published on a W*GG* webpage PLEASE let either myself or your distributor know, so we can get the ball rolling.

Sadly, I have been notified that Mr W.J. [Jim] Taylor of Droitwich, Worcestershire passed away in late January, and Mrs A. Ainsworth of Falmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada last year.

FEATURE FAMILY - William WAGG & Mary REEVE of NORFOLK ???

William WAGG and Mary REEVE were the parents of William WAGG born c1805 *somewhere* in Norfolk. William jnr. married Sophia KITCHEN on 27 November 1825 in St Andrew the Less [aka Barnwell], Cambridgeshire. Their children were born in Barnwell and St Leonard Shoreditch, Middlesex, before emigrating to Australia in 1837. As William was only 19 upon his marriage, parental consent should have been required. These records have not been microfilmed by the LDS. Would anyone have the opportunity to look at the original Parish Register for any further clues ?

A close relative of William jnr’s, more than likely his brother, was George WAGG born c1802 in Norfolk, who married Sarah HOANE in Finsbury Middlesex in 1827. George and family emigrated to Australia in 1832.

William and George were both living in Shoreditch at the same time, both families following the Independent/Congregational Religion, and George’s son-in-law was the executor of William’s will - so the connection is there - BUT WHERE IS THE PROOF ???

William jnr. is the ancestor of Peter WAGG of Tasmania and Amanda CAVENETT also of Tasmania descends from George.

PROFILE SPOTLIGHT - JOHN P. VERGE

My name is John P. VERGE and I, with my wife Gillian (nee THOMPSON) and sons Nicholas (29) and Stephen (25) live in a village near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England. I took an early retirement in 1994 after 35 years as a Research Chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, mainly in the UK research facility of Eli Lilly & Co of Indianapolis, USA. I have been researching our family history for about 3 years, mainly concentrating on the VERGE family, but with a keen interest in the Wiltshire WAGG families (being my father’s paternal line). I have VERGE contacts in Australia (Melbourne & Perth) and Canada (Vancouver area), and WAGG contacts in New Zealand and Australia (Queensland).

Since October last, I have become involved in the enormous FreeBMD project to transcribe the GRO England & Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes and make them freely available on-line. I have undertaken to transcribe the Births for one GRO Quarter (March 1870) and have completed about 51,000 records so far. Only about another 200,000 to go!

If YOU would like to have YOUR FAMILY featured or add your PROFILE please send particulars NOW. The next issue will be quite bare without them.

Does anyone have any information on “famous” or even “infamous” W*GG*s ?

Please send in your ideas and don’t forget to KEEP SENDING IN your W*gg* research findings !!!

To those who receive their Newsletter by post, please remember to reimburse your distributor or you may find your name left off the list.

Until next time, best wishes to you all....................................................

	Vivian Egan
World Wide W*gg* Volume 1, Issue 4, 1999	19 April 1999

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