MORE than 50 years after he started researching his family history David Hawkings has published a book about his ancestors and his links to the Wellington area.

David, who began his research in 1964, searched the Somerset Record Office in Taunton and the National Archives in London, among other places.

His grandfather, Thomas William Hawkings, lived in Bristol and as far as he knew the family had always lived there.

However, he discovered that his great-great-grandfather, Thomas Hawkings, was born in Wellington and moved to Bedminster, now a suburb of Bristol, in about 1860. The latter’s father and grandfather lived in Rockwell Green.

David said: “The earliest definite record of my family is the marriage of my great-great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Hawkings, who married Susannah Webber in 1785 at St John’s Church in Wellington. I have located descendants of this Robert Hawkings in London, the USA and New Zealand.”

He said the London branch goes back to his great-great-grandfather’s brothers, John and Henry Hawkings, who moved to the Notting Hill area of the capital.

They were builders and carpenters and built and owned many houses in West London, now worth considerable amounts of money. These houses were sold over the years and are no longer in the family.

David has met many of the descendants of the London branch of the family. He said: “The most notable was Air Commodore John Alfred Hawkings (1903-76). When I first met him his wife nearly fainted – she said it was like going back 30 years. We were almost doubles and born on October 25.”

John’s brother, Charles Maxwell Hawkings (1911-2004), was a remarkable man, a Major in the Army in the Second World War who wrote the instructions for the D-Day landings. He led a party into Germany and captured the Krupps Armament factory.

In peace time he was a bank executive who managed to get the stamp duty payable to legalise official documents abolished.

David, who lives in Taunton, said his branch of the family was not so accomplished – his great-great-grandfather died in the workhouse.

He added: “It is amazing what records survive. In the 1840s a map was drawn up for most parishes in England – Tithe Maps – and these show the owners and occupiers of all land and buildings. My family owned several cottages at Rockwell Green.”

Records of the Hawkings Family of Wellington, Somerset, England and Descendants has been printed by Carly Press at Chelston Business Park and David is planning to deposit a copy in Wellington Library.